The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The financial hardship suffered by former City Markets workers and pension beneficiaries has been exposed by a 29-year veteran of the company, whose inability to access her entitlement has resulted in cancer’s return.

Emily Adderley, in a January 25, 2016, letter sent to Nolan Scavella in the office of Chief Justice, Hartman Longley, emphasised both her “personal pain and suffering” and the distress endured by many former employees of the now-defunct supermarket chain.

“I am a cancer patient and I was waiting for my funds for my radiation treatment after chemotherapy,” Ms Adderley wrote to the office of the Chief Justice, who is ovserseeing the City Markets pension fund case.

“Due to a lack of funding, I was not able to pay for the radiation treatment and now the delay has caused my cancer cells to come back. I have to do chemotherapy all over again, and then radiation.

“I need outstanding monies owning to me (pension and severance). Since the company closed operations it will be four years as of March 30, 2016, and my personal finances are in arrears, and the banks and other financial institutions are calling me every other day.”

Not neglecting her former co-workers, Ms Adderley added: “The workers in Freeport are finding it very hard to find work, and it is extremely difficult coping with all the stress.

“We are looking forward to a final settlement ensuring all benefits belonging to us pensioners and employees (severance) are awarded to us in short order.

“My constant travel to Nassau for chemotherapy is truly taking a toll on me, along with the back and forth of this action.”

Ms Adderley’s letter, which referred to the “extreme pressure” imposed on her and other former City Markets staff since the defunct supermarket chain closed its doors in early 2012, further highlights the need for the Bahamas to implement enhanced regulatory oversight and protections of private sector pension schemes.

A Bill to do exactly that was brought to the House of Assembly by the Christie administration in 2013. Although it made it to a second reading and full debate, the Bill has never progressed into law.

Still, there appears to be renewed hope for Ms Adderley and other City Markets pension fund beneficiaries, after Tribune Business was yesterday told that their representatives and the trustees “appear to be of one accord” on how to proceed to resolution.

Whanslaw Turnquest, City Markets’ former chief inventory control officer, told this newspaper that they and the trustees “are on the same page” over the collective figure owed to pension beneficiaries.

Mr Turnquest, who heads the Bahamas Supermarkets Former Employees’ committee, confirmed that both sides had engaged accountants to determine this amount, and how much was due to each beneficiary.

Although Mr Turnquest and attorney Rouschard Martin, on behalf of the beneficiaries, had been provided with a total $17 million, they agreed to reduce this to $12 million, bringing it into line with the trustees’ figures.

Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business that this compromise was reached so as not to cause any further unnecessary delays to the pension fund beneficiaries receiving their monies.

“We are now seeking a date from the Registrar of the Supreme Court to conduct an accounting and assessment to determine what is owed to the persons entitled under the pension plan, and the persons entitled to severance payments,” Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business.

“The issue of liability is not in question. It’s just a matter of what amount we are looking at; what is the quantum on both the severance and the pension?

“We and the trustees are basically on the same page when it comes to the pension matter. The trustees have indicated that the pension matter does not come before them as they are only trustees for the pension fund.”

Mr Turnquest said all sides would lay their respective evidence before the Registrar, who will then determine the final amounts.

“We’re headed towards a court assessment and eventual judgment,” Mr Martin, the attorney for those represented by Mr Turnquest and his committee, said.

Mr Turnquest said the accounting exercise had come up with $3.4 million in terms of the total sum owed as severance pay to the former City Markets employees.

That made for a total $15.4 million in combined pension and severance payments that were outstanding, with Mr Turnquest acknowledging that responsibility for settling the latter lay with City Markets’ last majority owner, Trans-Island Traders. That is the vehicle owned by Sir Garret ‘Tiger’ Finlayson and his family.

“We have persons who have lost their homes, taken their children out of private school,” Mr Turnquest said of the four-and-a-half-year wait for resolution. “These are real matters every day, happening across the board.”

Dennis Williams, who together with Rosalie McKenzie, president of the union that represented former City Markets line staff, are the pension fund trustees, agreed that progress towards a resolution was being made.

“We are elated that the plaintiffs and trustees are now appearing to be of one accord,” Mr Williams told Tribune Business, “and in that vein there will be an assessment of damages in very short order, pending the signing off of a draft Order between all parties.”

He warned, though, that if agreement was not reached soon, the Supreme Court may have to take control “and the chips may need to fall where they may”.

And Mr Williams added: “If the plaintiffs’ representatives listened to the trustees’ attorney’s and accountant’s advice some weeks ago, we would have been much further ahead.

“Essentially, the positions taken by the plaintiffs just a few days ago were given by our team as a universal position to move the matter forward more than a month ago. However, the plaintiffs and their representatives were for whatever reason reluctant to adopt it until recently in court.”