The day Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. eliminated 400 shoreside positions, remaining employees were told to expect reductions in their retirement plans and a delay in 2009 merit bonuses.
An internal document sent to RCCL employees Monday, and signed by RCCL CEO Richard Fain, CFO Brian Rice, Royal Caribbean International President Adam Goldstein and Celebrity Cruises President Dan Hanrahan, said the execs had contemplated "changing the current retirement plan somewhat for existing employees and more aggressively for new employees."
New employees would be offered a retirement plan with "a lower benefit level than we provide our existing employees," the letter said. Current employees would be grandfathered into the current retirement plan, RCCL said; however, effective in January, the company contribution to those current employees' plans would be reduced by 2%.
"This means that starting next year, the annual contribution will range between 6% and 10% of base salary, depending on years of service, as opposed to the current range of 8% to 12%," the letter said. "Even with such a reduction in our contribution, we believe that our retirement programs would still be very generous compared to other companies."
Also in 2009, merit increases would be effective in July instead of February, the letter said; there had been no decision made on the merit increase percentage.
"We all have had to deal with the stress of the last couple of weeks and we sincerely appreciate your patience as we managed our way through these very tough decisions and times," the letter concluded. "It is now time to look forward to our future."