The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

SOME 190 Bahamian workers are without a job just weeks before Christmas after they were terminated from the Crystal Palace hotel by Baha Mar yesterday.

In reaction to this news, Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) President Nicole Martin said it is time for the government to stop spanking foreign companies on the wrist and instead “take out the belts”.

Ms Martin spoke to reporters moments after a more than two-hour long meeting with Prime Minister Perry Christie at his office about the mass firing. She said neither the union nor the employees had been forewarned.

She said it was possible that the Christie administration would take legal action against Baha Mar for breaching clauses laid out in a heads of agreement.

“We are asking the government to do what is necessary to cause this employer to fall within the terms of (the heads of agreement),” Ms Martin said.

“We know that the employer is getting everything or seems to be getting everything that this agreement calls for. But in the case of us, the Bahamian people and the workers here we are not getting (what we should).

“Our attorney tried to get an emergency injunction, (but) that failed because we are not parties to that agreement. So if there is to be any legal movement it has to come from the government. The prime minister has assured us that his people are going to do everything that they need to do within the next few hours to make contact. They see the value in the union’s position and they are going to do what they need to do to have the company come to the table and to have some discussions.

“I think that it is time to stop spanking these fellas on the wrist and saying you are a bad boy. It’s time to take out the belt. It’s time to really start putting a good bruising on them because they have no respect for this country.”

When The Big T visited the hotel at Cable Beach, employees were leaving the building, several of them holding yellow envelopes containing severance packages and redundancy letters.

A woman, who did not want her name to be used, said she had expected to be fired a long time ago. She has been with the hotel for nearly three decades, and while she received a severance package of $11,000, she said she did not expect that workers would be dealt with in this way.

She told reporters that most employees went to their respective work stations as usual and were surprised to learn of their dismissal by an executive who was carrying a box with yellow envelopes. That representative informed them that they were being terminated on the spot.

According to her, there was no explanation or staff general meeting to inform workers of their fate.

Robert “Sandy” Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice president of External Affairs and Administration, told The Big T yesterday that the lay offs “paved the way” for thousands of Bahamians to be trained for future jobs at the resort.

He said Crystal Palace will close to paying guests and will be used primarily to train thousands of hotel, food and beverage, security and other personnel in advance of Baha Mar’s opening scheduled for late Spring 2015.

One hundred Crystal Palace employees, he said, have “already been invited” to accept new positions at the Meliá Nassau Beach Hotel and Baha Mar.

This is not the first time that Baha Mar made existing hotel workers redundant.

In February of 2013, the company carried out a similar exercise in which scores of workers were laid off.

Labour Minister Shane Gibson said last night that the government was not pleased with the situation. He said their sentiments were communicated to Baha Mar representatives.

Another meeting with the union and the government is expected to be held on Tuesday.