The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A top hotel union executive said it did not want to get into a “back and forth” with the Minister of Labour over his claims that it bore responsibility for the One & Ocean Club lay-offs, stressing that it was instead focused on pushing for Industrial Relations Act amendments.

Shane Gibson had blamed the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU)  for the termination of the 61 employees, saying the union had missed the deadline to submit amendments it wanted to negotiate with resort employers for a new industrial agreement. As a result, the old deal expired, and the employers continued as if the old agreement was still in place.

But BHCAWU secretary-general, Darren Woods, declined to hit back at the minister yesterday. “You don’t want to be in a back and forth in the press with the minister of labour. He might have just been blowing off steam. I chalk it up to him just being ticked off a bit,” Mr Woods said.

He added that the union was still attempting to get a meeting with the One & Only Ocean Club over the terminations.

“We are still trying to get a meeting. That hasn’t happened as yet. That is something that we need to get resolved as soon as possible,” Mr Woods said.

“There needs to be amendments to the Industrial Relations Act, which is something that we would have been working on since mid-year. Our recommendations for amendments to the law were made to the Tripartite Council, and then will go on to the Minister and the Parliament.

“One of the amendments we were talking about was recognitions; what happens when the union gains recognition. Right now, the union gains recognition but there is no timeframe in order for the company to come to the table to sit down and negotiate with the union.”

The Tribune reported back in September that the Government wanted to bring “emergency legislation” to Parliament that would make it a criminal offence for employers to fail to consult or notify the relevant minister or bargaining agent about their intention to make 10 or more workers redundant.

The Government has also recommended that employers consult the minister and bargaining agent at least 60 days prior to the redundancy exercise, whenever an employer is proposing to make 10 or more employees redundant.

The Government also wanted to remove the cap in the Employment Act which ensures that there is a 12-year limit on the redundancy pay an employee is entitled to under the law.

This came in the wake of Sandals making over 600 employees at the Cable Beach resort redundant so it could conduct renovati ons. The Government claimed that it was given very little notice of the resort’s plans to make the workers redundant.

    Mr Woods told Tribune Business: “We also want industrial agreements to be incorporated into the individual contracts of employment for employees, so that when one expires the terms are incorporated in your individual contracts, which means that your benefits and so forth can continue.

“Even though we live under the spirit where, when one agreement expires that one remains in place until a new one is negotiated, we now want it to be enshrined in the law and not just common practice.”

  Mr Woods added: “The other thing we would have looked at is the issue of dues and the deduction thereof. The law presently now only speaks to the deduction of an agency fee.

“One of the recommendations we would have made is that once you gain recognition, the company is obliged deduct the union dues and/or the agency fee and forward that on. Those are some of the initial amendments that we talked about.”

These issues came to a head last summer when relations broke down between the Melia Nassau Beach Resort and the BHCAWU.