The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A former hotel union leadership contender yesterday urged the Government to “legislate” that expired industrial agreements, particularly their terms and conditions, remain in effect until a new deal is sealed.

Dave Beckford told Tribune Business that taking what was an established practice, and enshrining it in law, would likely prevent what has occurred at the Sandals Royal Bahamian and Melia Nassau Beach resorts within the past 12 months.

Mr Beckford echoed Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, who previously told this newspaper that it had been an established practice between union and employer that expired industrial agreements remain in effect until a new one is negotiated.

He and the TUC chief are arguing that both Sandals and the Melia broke with this convention/custom in their recent dealings with trade union bargaining agents and their staff.

Sandals, in explaining its decision to terminate its 592 Royal Bahamian staff to facilitate a three-month renovation project, said it had no choice but to select this route as the existing hotel industry industrial agreement had expired.

That deal, agreed between the sector and the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU), had expired in January 2013, and Sandals and its attorneys took the position its terms and conditions were no longer in effect.

Besides breaking the ‘custom’ referred to by Messrs Beckford and Ferguson, another key aspect of the Sandals situation is that the recognised bargaining agent for its employees is the Bahamas Hotel, Maintenance and Allied Workers Union - not the BHCAWU.

As for the Melia, the Supreme Court ruled last year that no industrial agreement between the resort and BHCAWU had been registered since 2003, thus making it ineffective in law.

Following that, the hotel has discontinued collecting union dues and paying them to the BHCAWU, while also allegedly denying union executives access to the property - issues the labour movement is currently taking up with the Christie administration.

“That’s another issue the Government needs to look at,” Mr Beckford told Tribune Business, “ensuring that when an industrial agreement expires, the terms and conditions continue until a new industrial agreement is negotiated. What else do you have to go by? Put it into law.”

Mr Beckford acknowledged that the BHCAWU’s failure to begin negotiations on a new industrial agreement within the stipulated timeframe, at least 90 days before the 2013 deal expired, had allowed the hotel industry to keep operating as if the latter deal was in effect.

Arguing that this had given resort owners/employers “the upper hand”, Mr Beckford said hotel workers had been forced to absorb Value-Added Tax (VAT) and a host of other cost increases without a pay rise since 2008 - something that many other Bahamian workers are no doubt familiar with.

He added that industrial relations in the Bahamas were currently “very poor” and “have to improve”, while giving his backing to the latest Employment Act reforms proposed by the Government.

The Christie administration wants to make it mandatory for employers to provide two months’ (60 days) notice to itself and the relevant bargaining agent (trade union) whenever they are about to make 10 or more workers redundant, with failing to do so becoming a criminal offence.

And, joining this proposal in the “emergency legislation” the Government wants to bring to the House of Assembly by September 30, the Government also wants to remove the Employment Act’s existing ‘12-year cap’ on severance/redundancy pay.

While both proposals must be discussed by the Tripartite Council, in a bid to achieve consensus before they become draft legislation put before Parliament, the Government has made little effort to disguise its determination to move them forward.

Many in the private sector view the latest labour law reforms, especially the ‘redundancy notice’ proposal, as unwarranted government intrusion and interference into the affairs of private businesses, and how they manage their operations.

However, Mr Beckford countered that it was “wrong” for employers to make workers redundant without notice, especially given the numerous financial obligations - mortgages, school fees - that the latter still have to carry.

“I think it’s high time that the Government pass legislation to give proper notice to the bargaining agent and the Government,” he told Tribune Business. “That’s the right thing to do.”

Mr Beckford said such notice, whether it is for 30 days or 60 days, was especially important in the Bahamian hotel industry, given how vulnerable it was to seasonal fluctuations in occupancy and business levels.

“That’s the right thing to do,” he added, suggesting that sudden terminations amounted to “a lack of respect” for workers, especially when they were required to give employers’ advance notice if they were leaving.

“It seems that we’re only workers,” Mr Beckford said. “It’s just a job. Your years of service don’t mean anything. This is a fragile industry, and I think I deserve to know when I’m going to be laid-off.

“I hope the Government moves swiftly to put this legislation in place to ensure employees are not laid-off without proper notice, and that it and the bargaining agent are notified.

“Too often employees are laid off without notice, are kept in the dark, come to work one day and no longer have a job. We no longer need to operate that way. It’s cold, heartless and totally disrespecting workers in the number one industry. We should be the number one workers, and are not being treated in the right way.”