Safety complaints from former employees pile up against Skagway tour company

As safety complaints from former employees pile up against Alaska Excursions, a major Southeast tour company, owners say they’re surprised, saddened, and making changes.

But that may not be enough to guarantee the Haines Assembly will grant their request to expand operations in the Borough.

 

The controversy began when Alaska Excursions applied for a permit from the Haines Assembly for a new ATV tour, that would take place on private land at Glacier Point, in the Chilkat Inlet.

Over two weeks, the Assembly has met twice to discuss the permit.

“There have been specific, and credible, and very damning accounts of your safety record,” Assembly member Tom Morphet explained, referring to a dozen former employees who’ve lodged complaints about the company’s current operations — let alone a new tour. They say the company prioritizes profit over the safety of employees and guests.

According to owner Robert Murphy, the company currently employs about 20 people year-round and 150 seasonal guides, running five tours around Haines, Skagway, and Juneau. That includes a canoe tour at Glacier Point, where they boat up to 15,000 cruise passengers each summer from Skagway to where the Davidson Glacier calves into a lake.

In letters, employees recount being pressured to take tourists on boats and ziplines in dangerous conditions, including over 30 knot winds, rough seas, and lightning storms.

They say the company was unresponsive when they asked for basic medical supplies, and chronically neglected maintenance. That made transporting passengers in boats, vehicles, and outboards stressful and dangerous.

They say the company didn’t provide or require adequate training for guides, didn’t have or practice safety protocols, and chronically overbooked and understaffed tours.

They recount specific near-accidents. Guides describe watching a colleague jump off a zipline platform without being correctly attached, who avoided falling five stories only because she was clipped to a 10-year-old riding tandem.  

Boat problems allegedly include broken windows, broken doors, and guests with broken bones from slamming against waves.

In his comments to the Assembly, Alaska Excursions owner Robert Murphy says many of these concerns are unfounded, have already been addressed, or stem from communication issues.

 “I expected we would be talking about terns and wolves and noise. I didn’t expect this,” he said. “For us, I kind of feel like we’ve been sidetracked. But you look for a benefit in anything. What can we get out of it? Well, really going over our protocols with a fine-toothed comb.”

Murphy says complaints spurred his office to scour their incident reports, captains’ logs, and safety policies.

“I had a tendency to push the captains to go too hard. So we addressed these types of issues. You move and you grow.”

Murphy says he plans to improve communication between Glacier Point and the Skagway office, and drug test remote employees.

He also says many of the seasonal guides have “an ax to grind” because of personnel issues he won’t discuss.

“What you’re hearing from, almost exclusively, are staff that were not invited back to the company for various reasons.”

Murphy asked the Assembly to consider the company’s actual safety record, rather than past employees’ perceptions of safety, when considering whether to approve his permit.

Because Alaska Excursions is a private company, there’s little formal accountability for their day-to-day operation. They have had publicly reported safety incidents in the past, including last summer, when a tipped vehicle injured more than 20 people.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the Haines Borough both require permits for the company to operate. But those permits are for land use, and don’t include safety oversight, though the Assembly can deny a permit to a company for any reason.

Murphy argued there are checks on his tours, since the Coast Guard annually inspects his operation. Emails from the Coast Guard say they only inspect the company’s three boats.

Murphy says the cruise companies he contracts with could investigate accidents, or choose to stop working with him if they are concerned.

There’s no regulatory body for the tourism industry besides the state government. If guides have concerns, their only recourse is to quit or report them to their managers. Alaska Excursions’ past employees claim there’s a culture of retaliation at the company. Morphet read from the testimony of a zipline manager who worked for the company for three seasons.

“I’ve witnessed many now former-employees who spoke up and demanded answers only to find their services were no longer needed,” he quoted. “The message was clear: get out of line, and you’re out.”

Murphy said he couldn’t respond to that.

“I want to keep good people. We as a team want to keep good people. That’s the best I can say. If something is legitimate, it’s legitimate. Why would we want to turn our back on something that would affect our operations?”

The Assembly is still considering whether or not to approve the permit, and whether to include environmental and safety stipulations. They asked Murphy to provide copies of his company’s written safety protocols and incident reports.

If approved, the new tour would allow Alaska Excursions to double their capacity, and bring another 15,000 visitors to ride ATVs at Glacier Point each summer.

The controversy comes at a time when tourism revenue in the region is steadily climbing: Skagway alone plans to see a 20% increase in visitors next year, as a new generation of giant cruise ships starts arriving in Alaska’s ports.

Murphy declined to comment for this story.