Three individuals who identified themselves as former employees of Ramsey shared allegations about her shark tour agency online over the last week. She categorically denied their claims of abuse and refuted allegations about long hours and lack of pay

NEED TO KNOW

• Three individuals who identified themselves as former employees of influencer Ocean Ramsey shared allegations about her shark tour agency online over the last week
• The individuals claimed that they experienced bullying and physical abuse and worked without pay at her diving company
• In statements online and to PEOPLE, Ramsey firmly denied bullying and abuse claims and provided further context about employe working conditions and pay

Ocean Ramsey has issued several public statements following a series of posts by former employees, who alleged that they experienced bullying and physical abuse while working at her diving company.

On Instagram, three individuals who identified themselves as former employees of One Ocean Diving — a shark tour agency based in Oahu, Hawaii — shared lengthy posts claiming that they were asked to work long hours, sometimes without pay, and that Ramsey, who co-founded the company with her husband Juan Oliphant, was physically abusive toward them on the job. 

In statements online and to PEOPLE, Ramsey denied claims about the long hours, lack of pay and physical abuse. She stated that she has never engaged in any kind of abuse, and she refuted claims about long hours, lack of pay, and nondisclosure agreements, telling PEOPLE that the allegations failed to provide the full picture.

“I do not believe the allegations being circulated accurately represent our company, either historically or today,” she told PEOPLE in a statement signed by Ramsey and Oliphant.

In a post on Oct. 20, Jenna Konyok, who said she worked at One Ocean Diving for roughly a year in 2019, wrote that she quit her previous job to earn her professional dive certifications to work for the company, having followed Ramsey — an internationally known shark conservationist and model — on social media for many years.

After booking the job, she moved from the British Islands to Hawaii, where she was asked to start her training the day after she arrived, she said. But before she could start, she claimed, she had to sign a nondisclosure agreement and a three-year non-compete agreement.

The training, Konyok asserted in her post, was intense: filled with 10-to-12–hour days, which she said had “no real breaks” and was unpaid. After her six-month training was completed, she further claimed she had to complete what was known as a “30-day challenge” where trainees were required to work unpaid for 30 days in a row.

“This challenge really sets the tone for what you should expect once you’re signed off as a safety diver there — you are rarely going to get a [sic] time off,” Konyok alleged.

In her post, Konyok called the days Ramsey was on the boat with her “some of the worst days of my life,” claiming that her behavior was “mean” and “aggressive.”

“I couldn’t believe who this person I followed on social media for all this time, actually turned out to be,” she said. “One time while on a dive, Ocean watched me take a long freedive and then dove down and grabbed my hand to essentially keep me down longer, forcing me to push my breath hold limits.”

Konyok said she left the company “a couple of months” after she finished her training. 

Taylor Cunningham, who said she worked at One Ocean Dive between 2017 and 2021, echoed many of Konyok’s allegations in a post of her own on Oct. 16.

“During that time,” she claimed on Instagram of her years at the company, “I witnessed and was subject to workplace abuse.”

Cunningham said she was first hired as an intern and then returned with the hopes of getting hired as a safety diver, calling the position her “dream job.” At the start of her internship, she claimed she also signed a non-disclosure agreement and a non-compete contract.

In her post, she called the One Ocean Diving training process — which she also described as multiple months without pay, in addition to a 30-day period at the end — “abusive.” 

On one occasion, she claimed, she had the flu and was still “expected to come into work.” On other occasions, Cunningham further alleged, Ramsey “screamed” at her, pushed her, grabbed her “hard enough to leave a bruise” and “smacked” her in the water.

“She would belittle, scream, and bully us,” claimed Cunningham.

Alexis Araw, a third person identifying themselves as a former One Ocean Diving employee, said in a post on Instagram that her time working at the company — as a boat captain from 2016 to 2021 — was “filled with night terrors, crying in the shower, extreme anxiety, overeating, and a shit ton of fear.”

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Though she said she once “idolized” Ramsey, she claimed in her Oct. 18 post that the conservationist yelled at her on multiple occasions.

“Ocean would always remind me how she used to break horses and that she could break people too,” claimed Araw. 

In a series of posts to Instagram and a follow-up statement to PEOPLE, Ramsey refuted the allegations made by former employees online. 

“I have never verbally or physically abused anyone,” she told PEOPLE, “categorically” denying that she had ever “slapped or smacked” anyone, as one employee had alleged.

Ramsey said that she has “physically guided, pushed, or pulled individuals when necessary to prevent them from striking the boat or to move them away from a potential shark-related hazard,” adding that she would sometimes “gently squeeze” the arm of trainees or employees when they failed to notice a hand signal she had made.

She also addressed claims that she had yelled at her employees, acknowledging that “there are situations where raising one’s voice is necessary, particularly when communicating urgent safety instructions.”

“Wind, waves, and water in people’s ears can make it difficult to hear,” she told PEOPLE. “When a shark is approaching quickly or someone needs to exit the water immediately, instructions must be loud, direct, and brief so that everyone’s attention can return to monitoring the sharks.”

Regarding the allegations about long hours and unpaid working conditions, Ramsey said that the claims made by her former employees didn’t show the full picture, writing to PEOPLE that employee hours “vary significantly” depending on “weather, ocean conditions, and bookings.”

While former trainees had alleged that the training program was unpaid, Ramsey told PEOPLE, “Historically, different trainees received different compensation arrangements depending on their existing qualifications, whether they were already certified divemasters, their water skills, and their progress through the training program.”

In a video she posted on Oct. 15, Ramsey also detailed the 30-day challenge, which she said was “not a requirement,” though she added the company does “try to take it that seriously because we want those trainees to have that opportunity to feel an off day — to feel tired — while they’re still not actually responsible for anyone that they’re trying to guide.”

Addressing the non-compete agreements that she has employees sign, Ramsey said in a statement on Instagram that her company had paid trainees through the whole training program, before they left to work for another dive company. She also added that the company had since done away with the non-competes after once requiring a three-year agreement.

In a graphic she shared to Instagram on Oct. 19, Ramsey explained that confidentiality agreements required of One Ocean Diving’s staff were intended to protect the privacy of the company and its personnel, but not “intended to silence anyone or restrict their legal rights.”

“I recognize that two people can experience or interpret the same conversation differently. If anyone has ever felt emotionally hurt by something I said, I would genuinely welcome the opportunity to speak with them, understand their perspective, and apologize for any unintended hurt or misunderstanding,” Ramsey told PEOPLE. “At the same time, I cannot offer a blanket apology that could be interpreted as acknowledging allegations of abuse or misconduct that I firmly deny. I believe it is important to distinguish between someone’s subjective feelings about a difficult conversation and allegations of specific conduct that did not occur.”

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