The former marketing manager of Tradewind Voyages has publicly begged the owners of the Golden Horizon ship to pay five months of salary she says she and other employees are owed.
In an emotional post on LinkedIn, Maddie Taylor called on Croatian shipyard Brodosplit and its parent company DIV Group to hand over the money.
She wrote: ‘I have a newborn baby and am about to lose my house, have been summoned to court for unpaid bills, I have not even received a penny of maternity leave pay from them either. Please stop ignoring our contact, act fairly and pay me what I am owed to save my livelihood, and also the other employees the money that we have all worked for.
‘Please – my little girl’s future rests on if I am paid the five months of salary I have worked for.’
Ms Taylor, who was part of the team that promoted Golden Horizon when the ship made its debut in the UK, says all her attempts to communicate with Brodosplit have been ignored or blocked.
The shipyard ran into financial difficulties when European sanctions were applied to a Russian-owned bank that lends it money. Golden Horizon – the world’s largest tall ship – has been put up for sale and Suffolk-based Tradewind Voyages has cancelled all sailings up to October 2023.
In a statement, a Brodosplit spokesperson said: ‘It is certainly untrue that she was ignored, because we answered her on messages and tried to explain the entire situation in which the company found itself due to the consequences of force majeure and blocked financing by the Russian VTB bank.’
For a timeline of the ship’s troubled history, please click here
This is absolutely disgusting that poor woman she’s not asking for anything but her own hard earned money pay up you discrasfull company would never use tradewinds again
I find this article so upsetting how can a company do this to a innocent family she is not asking for anything but her own hard earned money I will never ever use tradewinds company again and I will make sure none of my contacts will either I am so upset that a company could do this to inacent young families it’s discrasfull and inhuman please do the right thing and pay her her own money