The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Ex-City Markets staff were yesterday said to be “sick and tired” of the four-year struggle to obtain their due pension and severance benefits, a former manager adding: “This has gone far beyond conscionable.”

Whanslaw Turnquest, the now-defunct supermarket chain’s former chief inventory control officer, estimated that potentially as many as 40 beneficiaries may have passed before receiving their due pension entitlement.

In an emotional interview with Tribune Business, Mr Turnquest said many former City Markets staff had been left in a precarious emotional state, unable to meet financial obligations or secure employment of similar stature following City Markets’ collapse into closure in 2011.

The beneficiaries of City Markets’ staff pension scheme, known as the Bahamas Supermarkets Ltd Profit Sharing Retirement Plan, have subsequently been engaged in a battle to obtain their due entitlements and severance pay. Other workers not vested in the plan, but are still entitled to severance pay.

The situation has parallels with the CLICO (Bahamas) affair, where insurance policyholders, pension beneficiaries and other investors have been waiting for more than six years to access their investments - and with no end in sight to that saga.

Meanwhile, Mr Turnquest, who chairs the purportedly 40-strong Bahamas Supermarkets Former Employees Committee, and their attorney, Rouschard Martin of Martin, Martin & Company, are attempting to intervene in the Supreme Court over the pension fund, despite allegations that they are seeking to overturn a settlement that was agreed by all parties via a January 16, 2015, consent Order.

Rival attorneys who have signed up to that agreement are arguing that City Markets pension beneficiaries will receive more than they are entitled to under the plan (see other article on Page 1B), and are questioning why Messrs Turnquest and Martin believe it is such a bad deal.

They have also challenged their ability to represent pension plan beneficiaries, something Messrs Turnquest and Martin have refuted in an affidavit filed with the Supreme Court.

Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business that before there was any “winding-up” of the pension plan or payout to beneficiaries, he and those he purportedly represents want a full accounting and valuation of all its assets.

In a May 22, 2015, affidavit he called for the former City Markets head office and warehouse on the East-West Highway to be appraised.

Alleging that it and other assets needed to be “regained” for the pension fund’s benefit, Mr Turnquest alleged that the beneficiaries should not be made to incur “millions of dollars” in potential losses caused by the trustees’ actions.

Referring to the former headquarters building, Mr Turnquest alleged: “This asset has depreciated in value due to the breach of trust/contract and/or negligence of the trustees of the retirement plan.

“This would take into account all losses suffered by the recent fire due to the trustees leaving the warehouse unsecured and unattended for several years.”

Mr Turnquest also drew on the report produced previously by forensic accountant John Bain, which questioned what happened to the $428,201 and $871,851 (collectively $1.3 million) in head office rent that City Markets was supposed to pay to the pension fund in 2009 and 2010.

Mr Turnquest wants those monies accounted for, along with the $3 million ‘sale and leaseback’ deal that saw City Markets sell store improvements and equipment at its Cable Beach outlet to the pension fund, then rent them back.

Apart from a list of plan beneficiaries and details of its bank statements, Mr Turnquest and his attorneys are seeking answers from the trustees and their attorneys as to whether there was a $5 million loan from the fund to City Markets’ scholarship scheme.

They also want to know whether the City Markets pension plan ever held an ownership interest in parking lots in downtown Nassau, Rosetta Street and Elizabeth Estates; and interests in property near St Andrew’s School, Westward Villas and a Freeport warehouse.

Mr Turnquest’s affidavit alleged that he and his ‘committee’ had received no answers to their questions, but he yesterday alleged that he and Mr Martin were about to start talks with the attorney for the City Markets’ pension fund trustees, Alex Ferguson of Dunmore Chambers.

That could not be corroborated before press time, but Mr Turnquest’s May 22 affidavit sets out his objectives.

“The committee would like for the [Supreme] Court to ensure that all their retirement plan assets are fully accounted for to ensure all full entitlements,” he alleged.

“The committee would prefer to have the retirement plan wound up and lump sum payments made to the relevant committee members, due to the fact that many members need a lump sum payment to pay-off long-standing bills, bank arrears and to avoid their home being taken by financial institutions.”

Mr Turnquest alleged that some City Markets pension beneficiaries were “terribly sick”, while others had suffered long-term unemployment.

He added that many of his committee members were “deeply stressed out, and some have given up hope”.

Mr Turnquest also alleged that “time is of the essence” given that the ‘settlement agreement’ provided for the plan to be wound up by yesterday.

He claimed that the trustees had not been making monthly updates to the Supreme Court on the wind-up’s progress, something that has been disputed by other attorneys in the case.

“I haven’t done anything without specific instructions from the employees as to what they want done,” Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business yesterday.

“It’s not four years, and they’re sick and tired. This has gone far beyond conscionable. It’s unreasonable.”

Alleging that many former City Markets workers had lost faith in any pension fund resolution being achieved, Mr Turnquest added: “These people now owe the banks a lot of money.

“We have to get money to these people so they can meet their financial obligations. A lot of them have lost their life and health insurance.

“They are right now very distorted. They are under-employed, their living standards have dropped, and they are unable to meet their financial obligations.”

Mr Turnquest said he knew of one former employee who owed financial institutions $18,000, while Mr Martin said he was contacted by another yesterday to inform him their water had been turned off.

Mr Martin said one former female employee had seen the bank place a “90-day notice” on their home for repossession, due to a $40,000 debt.

“This is a class of persons who should be in a better state of affairs,” he added.