The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

EMPLOYEES at the One&Only Ocean Club resort may return to work ahead of the luxury resort’s Valentine’s Day 2017 re-opening date for “training” purposes, Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union President Nicole Martin said yesterday.

Ms Martin, in an interview with The Tribune, said that while the One&Only Ocean Club’s scheduled February 14, 2017 opening date is still in effect, employees may have a chance of returning to work early because hotel officials “are looking at some training period that is going to bring them back to work before that opening.”

Ms Martin also said the union plans to use an “existing fund” through a “partnership with the employer” to provide financial assistance to the hotel’s 350 employees during the five-month closure.

Her comments came just weeks after angry BHCAWU members threatened to petition for the National Congress of Trade Unions Bahamas (NCTUB) to serve as their interim bargaining agent over their dissatisfaction with their union’s handling of the temporary closure.

At the time, the disgruntled employees claimed that the union had not met with them to provide reassurances, nor offered to provide financial assistance during the five-month closure. Other employees testified about the hardships they were experiencing as a result of the closure, with some claiming they have had difficulty meeting their mortgage payments and honouring other bills.

Yesterday, however, Ms Martin said the BCHAWU’s top brass met with One&Only employees on Wednesday night to clear the air. That meeting, she said, came after the union met with One&Only Ocean Club General Manager John Conway on the hotel’s closure.

“We informed (the members) about what the union intends to do through partnership with the employer, through an existing fund, so we hope that that assistance could get going quickly,” Ms Martin said. “We did have the meeting with One&Only Ocean Club General Manager John Conway, where we talked about futuristic employment of the employees, if that was in jeopardy.

“Of course they assured us that there was no plan to do anything as far as reducing numbers or terminating workers, that the closure was merely because of damage they sustained during the hurricane. The employees are expected to be out until the 14th of February, however they are looking at some training period that is going to bring them back to work before that opening.”

Ms Martin said the union also explained to its members why it had not met with them up until Wednesday night. She said that the union doesn’t “like to have meetings to say what we’re going to do, we like to have meetings to say that this is the decision that was made, and this is what is going to happen.”

“Part of our issue is that we should have had a discussion prior to the storm so that we could have been able to lay out what would happen post-Hurricane Matthew, but that not happening has caused I guess a little bit of discomfort with the workers,” she said. “But we were assured that (hotel officials) were going to continue to do everything they can to get the property open on time and that employees that volunteered to work or would like to volunteer to work they can still do that.

“I think they left the meeting feeling a lot better. If you put yourself in their shoes, you don’t know what’s going on, nobody has said anything to you--no one in this case meaning the union, so they were very apprehensive, they were not unhappy in the beginning. But by the end of the meeting I think they were satisfied with the answers and waiting for this to actually bear fruit. So I think the meeting was a good meeting.”

She added: “Our members are normally very honest with me. If they’re happy they let me know they’re happy, if they’re not they do that also. So I think they feel a lot better under the circumstances.”

Ms Martin also said notwithstanding previous issues with management at the hotel-- such as employees previously stating they were facing “unrelenting battles” with the hotel’s management staff – relations with hotel officials seem to be getting better.

“We’re getting there,” she said. “Our communications is getting better in light of all that has happened. So I would just say it’s a work in progress.”

Last month, Mr Conway confirmed that the hotel had delayed its reopening date, from December 2016 to February 2017, stating that the hotel is still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

At the time, management did not specify what will happen to the 350 employees in the meantime, but said they and the union had been informed of the extended period of closure.