By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
COURT proceedings against Sandals Royal Bahamian and two of its senior executives brought by union officials were dropped by order of the Attorney-General on the day the Cable Beach resort terminated nearly 600 staff to facilitate a $4m renovation programme, it has emerged.
Allyson Maynard-Gibson gave a ‘nolle prosequi’ (no prosecution) direction to the Magistrate’s Court to discontinue the criminal action on August 15, a move which Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, described as adding “insult to injury”.
Mr Ferguson said that the entire trade union movement was “very, very, very shocked” by Mrs Maynard-Gibson’s directive and accused the Government of betraying and deceiving the Bahamas Hotel, Maintenance and Allied Workers Union (BHMAWU), and all workers, by not being “up front” about its actions and intentions.
He pointed out that while the TUC’s BHMAWU affiliate, and other trade unions, have been engaged in talks with the Government for more than a month in a bid to resolve the Sandals situation and other matters, the ‘nolle prosequi’ was signed and dated August 15.
Mr Ferguson said neither Prime Minister Perry Christie, nor Mrs Maynard-Gibson, had disclosed the ‘no prosecution’ directive’s existence despite meeting several times with the unions over the past five to six weeks. He added that the directive was only brought to light during court proceedings on Monday.
The Attorney General’s directive to the court “authorises” and requires it to enter into its records that the proceedings against Sandals and two senior executives “be discontinued”. This halts the action launched against the resort, its general manager, Gary Williams, and financial controller, Fitzroy Walker, by five officers of the BHMAWU who had alleged that Sandals Royal Bahamian was in breach of the Industrial Relations Act by failing/refusing to “treat or enter into negotiations” with the union.
They had also claimed that the resort, and Mr Williams and Mr Walker, had violated the Industrial Tribunal Relations Act by intimidating and terminating employees. The resort, and its executives, had denied all allegations.
Sandals has come under fire for making the workers redundant in order to conduct improvements, with claims of “union busting”. Labour Minister Shane Gibson told Parliament last month the resort failed to notify the government of its intentions in good time and that it was a retaliatory attack on the BHMAU. He expressed dissatisfaction with the resort’s decision to make workers redundant rather than laying them off and have them return to work when the resort reopens in October.
There were also calls for Sandals to immediately rehire all the workers it laid off when the resort re-opens and re-engage with the BHMAU. Last month, Sandals hosted a four-day jobs fair at which the terminated workers could re-apply along with new candidates.
Mr Ferguson accused the Government of returning Bahamian workers to “pre-1958 General Strike” conditions and of being less than frank in its meetings with the trade unions after the Sandals terminations. He suggested that the ‘no prosecution’ move proved the Government was firmly on the side of the all-inclusive resort chain.
“Based on the meetings we had [with the Government], we felt we would have been told,” Mr Ferguson told The Tribune. “If the document was signed on the 15th, and 600 workers were terminated on the 15th, at the time we requested a meeting, and the information was not disclosed to us, it makes it very difficult to conclude that the Government disclosed all it knew.
“It’s a difficult period; a very difficult period for workers in this country,” he said. “The decision to nolle this matter puts the workers back to pre-1958. One should at least expect to have your day in court. The effect of this nolle is to prevent the Bahamian workers for going to court.”
Comments
realfreethinker 8 years, 2 months ago
Man this is getting juicier by the day. This government is nothng more than a train wreck. Ya'll better deal with these crooks and swindlers come next election or this country will perish.
banker 8 years, 2 months ago
It's all clear to anyone who can see! It's the Golden Rule -- he who has the gold, makes the rule!
John 8 years, 2 months ago
Does this also mean that government will discontinue its effort to pass a law prosecuting employers who terminate employees before notifying the government first/ How they now come to realize how much they were intruding on the freedoms and rights of employees without realizing that, at the end of the day employers hold the key to their businesses and will have the last say? Even if it means, in the case of foreign owned businesses, that they pack up and move away. The fact is that is is always a sad and distressing occasion for anyone to lose their job. (we see what is the regular outcome in the US when disgruntled workers get fired). But i The government has put National Insurance in place as a safety net for when this happens. Unions should be the ones fighting for their workers and not the government . At least not to the extent of taking workers to court. Both the government and the unions most come to realize that long term job security in the tourism industry is no longer a given. Employers are willing to sacrifice long term, hard working dedicated workers for more youthful, energized and active ones. So now its government and the unions' prerogative to fight for more worker benefits in the short term and also to ensure that more worker insurance benefits are garnered in the short term. Not to fight the employer in court after the fact. Yes eventually another problem will develop where many persons in their 40's and 50's find themselves unemployed and unemployable in the hotel/tourism industry. But if the tourism product demands more youthful employees, the question then is how to fix that.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 2 months ago
Will the Tribune take down comments to this story as well as it is a "sensitive" issue that they afraid of getting sued by the players involved?????? ............ SMDH
Sickened 8 years, 2 months ago
If this doesn't cause the union to 'shut down' the country then nothing will and the union leaders should resign in shame.
This government needs a 50 thousand man protest in order to get the message that what they are doing is WRONG!!!!
sheeprunner12 8 years, 2 months ago
Agreed ............. this should be the last straw for right-thinking Bahamians who want to preserve the little that we have left to call authentically Bahamian .......... This calls for a General Strike like 1958
TalRussell 8 years, 2 months ago
Comrades! With each 'how and why in the hell did they decide do and then publicly admit to doing it' headline coming from the most senior members this PLP Cabinet, the 2017 General Election may just be reshaping to be a reversal of the Pindling strong in popularity years, and as it was expected to happen during Papa Hubert's 15 years as Prime Minister, when it was a guaranteed given that if Papa Hubert, didn't win a General Election, the victory would by default be handed over to his former Law Partner and close friend PLP Official Opposition Leader Christie.
Is there good reason to start giving weight to why come the 2017 General, the Political Strategists, Pollsters and Pundits, may have to admit privately that the old established given that the 2017 General Election Results will alter the structured thinking that makes the Two-Party System inevitable?
Comrades, there will be a new Government sworn-in after the 2017 General's, final votes are officially announced, but of and from what political associations will its elected members be made-up. A high possibility there will be a minority coalition government with Minis as PM.....or will Minnis, be forced to make his exit, before the 2017 General's bell gets rungs?
sheeprunner12 8 years, 2 months ago
Agreed ........... we may be going down the road of 1967 again ........ a coalition government is reasonably possible in 2017 ...... five DNA and/or independent MPs will throw the whole Parliament into a tizzy
TalRussell 8 years, 2 months ago
Comrade Sheeprunner2, if the Red Party can't be victories for the House of Assembly seats in Long Island, Montagu and both Abaco's Cooper's Town and Marsh Harbour seats and three seats out Grand Bahama, they cannot possibly expect to win a single seat elsewhere out of Nassau, or the Family Islands? And, with so many old disgruntled with the party UBP voters, it's an illusion to think the old UBP seats will remain Red Party fortified.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 2 months ago
Tal .............. why do you insist on tagging the FNM with the UBP???? ....... Should we tag the PLP with the MLK Civil Rights movement??????
That is how hilarious your comments appear in 2016
TalRussell 8 years, 2 months ago
Comrade, does Montagu's Richard rungs a loud UBP Bell enough for your ears, and if not Richard is but only one who came along as Montagu's MP and to other UBP voting block strongholds, after Pindling, and even Sir Stafford, had long made their permanent exits from the local political scene. Even Papa Hubert and "Big Bad" Brad, were "on-loan" UBP's? Just that Brad has lasted PLP longer?
sheeprunner12 8 years, 2 months ago
OK, Tal ........... I give you Montagu ............. but how do you reconcile that the most backward, undeveloped, dependent parts of this country are the most loyal PLP supporters?????? ........ start with Centreville, Fox Hill, Cat Island, Acklins and South Andros .......... I await your sage comeback comment
TalRussell 8 years, 2 months ago
Comrade Sheeprunner12, why the PLP and we must also include the Red Movement MP's, continue to emerge victories election after election from such third world living standards constituencies is something you will need to go ask a physiologist to study why core voters are more likely to remain loyal “no matter how badly" their constituencies are underrepresented. It’s possibly a constituency hereditary disorder from their UBP representation days, would be my most honest answer to your honestly asked and most puzzling question?
Papa Hubert's, chief bragging accomplishment as Cooper's Town's long-serving MP, is how he successfully brought the toilets in from his constituents backyards, into the peoples main Houses....and no, I just didn't make that Papa Hubert one up...he actually has repeated it on many occasions....Honestly, I swear!
DDK 8 years, 2 months ago
Kaching! Kaching!
Publius 8 years, 2 months ago
The problem? Everyone on both sides of this is a worthless politician - the government and the union leaders. Everyone in that room is looking out for their own interests making declarations they know to be untrue in order to get a certain reaction from the hearers. Anyone with common sense in these matters had to recognize that the government knew of and sanctioned the layoffs beforehand, and anyone with common sense in these matters also had to recognize that these union leaders were making "shut down the country" comments in front of cameras, but were playing with these government officials behind closed doors. Now they are crying foul.
licks2 8 years, 2 months ago
This is the "END" for the PLP and Sandals in the Bahamas! This can very be the fuse that "muck-up thee wurks" for this government. . . I told the sandals people around here that from a HR perspective that anti-social move made with those workers was "ger cost" them plenty in the long run. . .and "ger be" much more worse when it gets out to they other sites in this region. . .now this scandal in our courts! They have now succeeded in bringing all unions together to fight them. . . THIS GER LONG FER ALLA DEM!
jusscool 8 years, 2 months ago
When money talks ,people listen!
licks2 8 years, 2 months ago
Like it was tried (talked) in the Turks and Caicos' Island and cost them $12 million by the British government for skullduggery with that government? This case making one of Jamaica's richest 8 persons look like he is back in that lil skull boat when he was a boy ferrying tourist in the harbor in JA! The Bahamas is a world class brand name. . .them back-yard business practices is seen by the world. . .this company should have done learn that lesson. . .but obviously they have not! They een hearin so dem er feel"!
themessenger 8 years, 2 months ago
Pray tell, how will the unions shutting down the country hurt Sandals?? When the dust settles the only ones hurting will be the gullible Bahamian people who will be left holding the smelly end of the big stick the unions thought to beat Sandals & the government with.
justthefactsplease 8 years, 2 months ago
Shutting down the country has nothing to do with Sandals. It is sending a message to our Uncle Tom leaders who continue to put the foreigners' interests above those of the people the are elected to represent that they have gone too far.
ThisIsOurs 8 years, 2 months ago
If you go back and review the government's response to the cabbage beach protest, it was very telling. It clearly had the potential to blow up, all opposition forces and the unions were collectively speaking out against the government. A general strike would have this government shaking in their boots.
The issue isn't prosecuting Sandals, it's the overreach of the government.
licks2 8 years, 2 months ago
You don't see it do you? When the dust settles. . .the two brand names in this "dust-up" is Sandals and the Bahamas! Not the workers. . .the world is on their side child from the get go! The Bahamas has no history of this kind of cooperate behavior. . .now the other guy. . .there is where the world will go "sniffing under them dress" looking for something. . .THERE THE OTHER BRAND WILL BE "PEEKED" INTO. . .now you see who will be left holding that bag. . .17 other regional sites are watching also. . .they may wonder if them others guys may be up to the kind of behavior for which them British fined $12 million for or the case in Florida they wanted to move to the Bahamas!
SP 8 years, 2 months ago
............................ Government & Witch fool the unions AGAIN! ..................................
Obie Ferguson and big John Pinder stupidly allowed themselves to be bamboozled, hoodwinked and made to look like jackass's again.
After all these years of "talking" these guys have accomplished NOTHING for their members.
Enough talk! Shut the dam country down and force this lousy, corrupt government OUT NOW!
Publius 8 years, 2 months ago
It is amazing to me that people actually believe Obie Ferguson, a lawyer and officer of the court, did not know that this court matter was no longer a court matter before he met with government officials.
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 2 months ago
What these brain dead politicians and union leaders don't realize is that Butch and his son have had about all of the nonsense they can stomach in the Bahamas and, as a consequence, have cast their eyes to the southwest of us, towards the re-awakening jewel of the Caribbean: Cuba.
licks2 8 years, 2 months ago
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. . .right into the heart of a people who cut they eye-teeth on Maio, Marxz, Rand and Tolstoy. . .and Castro. . .they went after Fulgencio Batista and his economic policies which were the same as Sandals . . . ignoring the ruling of courts against workers and being supported by the government. . .a people who depended on its government for over 40 years! The opening of Russia showed the rest of the world that "opening" a communist nation which were under the patronage of the government for so long is a population who are not too hard working and has high expectation for getting something for nothing! Sandals will never make such anti-workers decisions in a nation that is 'looking for something for nothing". . .one who has a history (late as Granada in 1989) of uprising against leaders who exploit the people. . .THE CORE OF CUBAN NATIONAL THINKING. . .DESTROY ALL EXPLOITERS OF THE PEOPLE!
Yes. . .let them go to Cuba. . .I hope they do. . .
MonkeeDoo 8 years, 2 months ago
If the Reds put d'Aguular in Montague then Lughtbourn ga take St. Anne's. Trus me !
Greentea 8 years, 2 months ago
what case? smt
John 8 years, 2 months ago
Is there a class one can attend if only to understand his posts
Socrates 8 years, 2 months ago
For once, the Nolli was sensibly exercised... There may be hope yet...
sheeprunner12 8 years, 2 months ago
This ugly, devious, corrupt woman (AMG) is a real and present danger to a semblance of democracy, the rights of citizens and the welfare of employees in our country ............ she seems to be the hatchet-woman behind Perry, while he brays like an toothless ass
ThisIsOurs 8 years, 2 months ago
If find it very hard to believe that the AG went Lone Ranger on the PLP. I also find it amazing that so many of them have publicly abandoned her, weird.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 1 month ago
You will never get an answer to this from the PM or the AG ........ so leave it be .......... hopefully there are some cellphones or computers that can be hacked to recover an info trail on this matter
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