The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FREEPORT – Minister of Labour Shane Gibson is advising those redundant employees of the Grand Lucayan Resort to immediately file a trade dispute with the labour department if they are not being paid in accordance with the industrial agreement.

“In Grand Bahama, for them, they have an industrial agreement in place that clearly spells out how employees are to be made redundant,” he said.

Some 30 hotel workers in the security department were laid off two weeks ago at the resort in Lucaya.

The Commonwealth Union of Hotel Services and Allied Workers claims that the layoffs were not done according to the terms of the industrial contract.

President Michelle Dorsett said management did not sit down with the union to discuss the situation before terminating the workers.

She claims that the hotel is attempting to rehire the workers by outsourcing to a local security firm, where they would receive any benefits such as vacation pay, and would be working more hours and earning much less.

The security officers were earning some $375 a week compared to the new weekly salary of some $200.

The union president was also very disturbed  by the skimpy packages being offered to the laid off workers.

She said many of the workers were in tears after receiving their redundancy packages.

Persons employed at the hotel for eight years were offered $5,000, and those employed for two years were offered packages of $1,600.

Minister Gibson noted that the labour agreement also spells out the types of benefits to which the workers are entitled.

“I would encourage them that if they are not being paid in accordance with the industrial agreement then they should immediately file a trade dispute with the department of labour so that we can move on it as quickly as possible,” he said.

Ms Dorsett believes that management is also planning to out-source other departments.

She is accusing the labour of department of siding with the management after labour officials would not facilitate a strike poll for the 364 hotel workers last Friday at Le Utopia. 

According to Ms Dorsett, they were told by labour officials that there was no one there that they could send to supervisor the poll.

“In view of what transpired on Friday with respect to the strike poll which the MOL denied the CUHSAW, it is our understanding that this was a deliberate act…to frustrate and undermine what the union is trying to do on behalf of the workers,” she claimed.

She said the union’s lawyer Obie Ferguson is seeking to pursue other options.