The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Parties to the long-running City Markets pension fund controversy yesterday expressed optimism that resolution and payouts could be forthcoming before Christmas, telling Tribune Business: “Everything seems to be a go.”

Whanslaw Turnquest, City Markets’ former chief inventory control officer, said that following a series of meetings that lasted into the weekend, and a Supreme Court hearing yesterday, the fund trustees “agreed to use our figures” for calculating the payouts due to hundreds of former City Markets workers.

Mr Turnquest, who heads the Bahamas Supermarkets Former Employees’ committee, and the fund trustees agreed that their respective accountants will now seek to “certify” the list of pension beneficiaries, and the sums due to them, before November 23.

That is when all parties are due back before Chief Justice Hartman Longley for a further update on progress towards resolving the four-and-a-half year saga.

And Mr Turnquest and his attorney, Rouschard Martin of Martin, Martin & Co, also revealed that the trustees are due to provide them with a letter on Friday detailing the timeline, and method, for how they propose to pay the beneficiaries what they are due.

Dennis Williams, the attorney for the Bahamas Commercial Stores, Supermarkets and Warehouse Workers Union, who together with its president, Rosalie McKenzie, are now the pension fund trustees, confirmed these details in an e-mail to Tribune Business.

“We trust that this matter will be concluded in short order provided all goes as planned,” he told this newspaper, adding that he and Ms McKenzie had been “observers to a financing deal” that will fund the pension payouts.

Detailing the latest developments, Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business: “We had a meeting on Friday and Saturday. At the meeting on Saturday, they [the trustees] agreed with our figures.

“Their accountant and our accountant are getting together to look at all the figures. We went to court this morning, and are back on the 23rd [of November]. The judge gave them two to three weeks to have everything wound up.

“The trustees said they’re going to go with our figures. They want to verify them, and just want to make sure everything is above board with the judge.”

Court documents obtained by Tribune Business reveal that Mr Turnquest and his committee were concerned that the figures being used by the trustees significantly undervalued the sums due to City Markets pension beneficiaries.

Mr Turnquest, whose committee purports to represent more than 300 persons and over 90 per cent of beneficiaries, was concerned that the trustees were using pension account statements from 2006.

He and his committee possessed account statements for 2009, and Mr Turnquest warned in an October 1, 2015, affidavit, that there were “disparities” of between $20,000 and $50,000 between the two sides’ figures for what was owed to individual pension beneficiaries.

“The beneficiary account statements, which are the last ones issued, with 2010-2015 never being issued by the trustees, are much higher when compared to the figures present in the Rosalie McKenzie affidavit,” Mr Turnquest alleged.

“A comparative study was done using some 42 beneficiaries, and it demonstrated that the ‘union trustees’ payable figures are far lower and incorrect, without any information provided by the trustees to back up their conclusions.

“Further, there is no proper formula to show consistency with the calculations, and this has caused disparities in some cases of between $20,000 and $50,000.”

Hundreds of former City Markets workers have been waiting on a collective multi-million dollar sum for more than four-and-a-half years, after the supermarket chain - a previous ever-present on the Bahamian retail scene - ceased operations in 2011.

Detailing the impact on the former workers, Mr Turnquest warned in his affidavit: “The beneficiaries continue to suffer, with bills piling up for mortgages, rent, education, health, utilities and the usual basic necessities of life.

“More than 30 beneficiaries have died since the closure of City Markets/Winn Dixie, and many continue to suffer form meagre/temporary jobs or unemployment.”

But, singing a more positive tune yesterday, Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business: “The beneficiaries should be very happy now. The pension matter is about to be resolved in short order.”

He described the Supreme Court hearing before Chief Justice Longley as “very fruitful and candid”.

His assessment was backed by Mr Martin, who told Tribune Business that the parties should be able to inform the Supreme Court on November 23 that “everything’s a go in terms of the list and individuals” who are due monies from the pension plan, which is called the Bahamas Supermarkets Ltd Profit Sharing Retirement Plan.

Mr Martin added that the trustees were also due to send himself and Mr Turnquest a letter on Friday, setting out a “timeline” and how pension monies would be paid out.

“It seems a go,” he reiterated, adding that pension beneficiaries - previously told there was “an uphill battle” to secure payment - could now have “some sort of confidence that the matter is not lingering”.

“The Christmas period is almost upon us,” Mr Martin told Tribune Business. “People are looking in terms of time and what is happening.

“These persons want funding to kick-in before that period. We don’t want any dilly-dallying. We need payment right away; not in December, we need it in November.”

Ms McKenzie, in an August 31, 2015, affidavit, promised that the financing arrangements for pension beneficiary payouts would be in place by October 30 - this Friday.

However, that deadline now seems set to be missed, albeit for valid reasons, following previous timelines of June 1, 2015, and September 30, 2015, that were also not met.

Mr Williams, in his e-mailed response, praised the increased co-operation between the parties towards a settlement of the pension fund issues.

“It is always better to settle a matter than to continue on with lengthy, and sometimes unnecessary, litigation, especially in a trade union matter,” Mr Williams said.

“As it relates to the figures, we explained to Messrs Martin and Turnquest that as trustees our role is not of a combative nature relative to any beneficiary.

“Any information or claim that can be absolutely verified within reason, in accordance with the agreed process, will be not just considered but accepted,” he added.

“However, in the exercise of our fiduciary duties we are unable to just ‘willy nilly’ accept any printout from any person because each household has a printer which can print a statement. We will rely on the advice of the accountants and counsel for verification of the quantum of benefit for each beneficiary.”

Tribune Business previously revealed that City Markets’ last principals, the Finlayson family, exchanged the pension plan’s interest in the former company head office - its main asset - for preference shares in their Associated Bahamian Distillers and Brewers (ABDAB).

The deal effectively switched the security for the former supermarket chain’s pension beneficiaries from illiquid real estate assets that have proven “impossible” to sell to a more liquid investment.

With no buyer found for the former City Markets head office on East-West Highway, the pension beneficiaries - via the trade union - were in theory given the opportunity to receive dividend payments on those preference shares and, potentially, a cash payout of everything owed to them.

That ‘cash payout’ is likely to be the “financing deal” referred to by Mr Williams, which will result in the payout of what is due to all City Markets pension beneficiaries.

“We did undertake to provide a letter with a timeline for payment, as we have been observers to a financing deal which this long outstanding matter is a part of. We trust that this matter will be concluded in short order provided all goes as planned,” Mr Williams told Tribune Business.

“We are approaching a very sensitive and delicate part of the settlement process, which calls for teamwork and that all parties involved work diligently to ensure that all is done to bring closure to the matter so that each lawfully entitled beneficiary will be able to realise their entitlements of the pension plan.”