The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Renovations at Sandals Royal Bahamian are ‘on track’ to be completed in time for its planned mid-October reopening, the resort’s project manger said yesterday, adding that the daily construction workforce would peak at 200 persons.

James Wilson told Tribune Business that between 100 to 200  workers were employed on the project on any given day, along with up to 12 Bahamian contractors. He addeds that some work was being carried out “around the clock”.

“The work is coming on quite well right now,” he said. “There are probably a dozen contractors on site. We have another six weeks to go from today.

“Things are going reasonably well so far. We found issues along the way but we have been dealing with those. Unless something else comes up we are on track for opening in mid-October.

“Right now, everything is going  more or less as scheduled.

On any given day we have 100-200 on site, and that might get up to 300.”

    Last month, Sandals outlined a $4 million renovation to be undertaken during a two-month closure of its Cable Beach property, saying the work was being ‘fast tracked’ for what was shaping up to be its best winter season ever.

Sandals executives said the repairs and upgrades which forced the 60-year-old Royal Bahamian resort’s closure would be implemented within 14 weeks, which it described as a “massive feat itself’, considering the original completion timeframe was estimated at four months.

The renovations and upgrades are being carried out on areas such as the Windsor Poll, the Balmoral Pool, the chilled water system, the boiler system.

Meanwhile, Sandals disclosed that 379 or 64 per cent (just under two-thirds) of the 592 employees terminated to allow the renovations to take place had reapplied for their posts.

This means that some 213 former staff have elected not to return to the Royal Bahamian, thus giving an opportunity for some of the 890 outside candidates who attended Sandals’ recent job fair to be hired.

Given that Sandals Royal Bahamian has committed to hiring the same number of workers, 592, there will be no net impact on the Bahamas’ unemployment rate.

However, the requirement for former employees to reapply for their jobs has provoked claims that the terminations were also designed as a form of ‘union busting’.

Sandals Royal Bahamian has been embroiled in a long-running dispute with the Bahamas Hotel, Maintenance and Allied Workers Union, which has been seeking to negotiate an industrial agreement with the resort after being recognised as the bargaining agent.