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Cornelio v. Premier Pacific Seafoods5/23/2005
Twenty-three crewmembers of the Ocean Phoenix sued their former employer, Premier Pacific Seafoods, Inc., after they were discharged for refusing to work 16-hour shifts instead of the customary 16 hour shifts. The crewmembers alleged (1) breach of contract, (2) wrongful discharge, (3) double wages and attorney fees, and (4) violation of 46 U.S.C. sec. 10601, which requires that certain terms be in seamen's contracts. Premier Pacific filed a CR 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the first three claims and a summary judgment motion on the fourth claim. The company argued that maritime law and policy and contract law preempted the crewmembers' claims. The trial court granted the motions, and the crewmembers appealed.
Because the contract was completely integrated and did not include any terms governing work hours, we cannot grant relief on the crewmembers' claim that the contract was ambiguous on that subject. And even if we assume, as we must under CR 12(b)(6), that expanding the work day from 16 to 16-hours violated the custom in the industry or some other employment term, the requirement that the seamen work an extra one-half hour each day is not egregious enough to warrant expanding the narrow wrongful discharge public policy exception to the employment at-will doctrine to allow the crewmembers to pursue their wrongful discharge claim. But Premier Pacific violated 46 U.S.C. sec. 10601 because it did not define the production-based compensation terms to which the crew was subject before the ship left Seattle. We therefore affirm in part and reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
FACTS
In early January 2003, the 23 plaintiff crewmembers signed contracts in Seattle to work as fish processors for Premier Pacific Seafoods, Inc. (Premier Pacific), aboard the Ocean Phoenix, a factory processing ship headed to the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. The contracts covered the pollock fishing 'A' season that typically runs from January into early spring. Many of the crewmembers had previously worked for Premier Pacific. The Ocean Phoenix departed Seattle with approximately 230 employees aboard.
Fish processing requires physically demanding labor and long work hours. The contract included a 'Certification of Physical Condition' clause that stated in part that the '{e}mployee understands that working conditions aboard the ship are difficult, strenuous and sometimes hazardous and that working hours are often long. Employee has considered these factors before making a decision to accept this employment.' The contract did not specify work hours, but the experienced processors had worked 16 hour days, seven days a week during previous 'A' seasons with Premier Pacific. At the beginning of the 2003 'A' season, after the Ocean Phoenix had left Seattle for the Bering Sea, Premier Pacific's on-board factory management told the processors that they would be working 16-hour days that season.
After working several 16-hour days, some of the processors protested the longer working hours. On February 2, 2003, management met with approximately 30 processors, including most of the plaintiff crewmembers. The parties dispute what happened at the meeting, but they agree that the factory manager, Pat Hermens, did not want to discuss work hours at that time and told the processors to go back to work. The processors refused. The next day Premier Pacific diverted the Ocean Phoenix to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and ordered the protesting processors, including the plaintiff crewmembers, off the ship. The crewmembers immediately complained about unsafe working conditions to the Coast Guard, which investigated the crewmembers' claims but found no safety
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