The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FINANCIAL assistance for sacked workers at the One&Only Ocean Club is reportedly on the way, with hotel union officials heralding yesterday’s expected approval of the union’s attempt to secure access from the Bahamas Hotel Industry Management Pension Fund.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) secretary general, told The Tribune that pension fund committee members were expected to finalise the union’s request to access whatever funds are available in the health and welfare fund of the pension fund to provide financial assistance to the employees during a meeting yesterday.

“That is being processed now,” Mr Woods said when contacted. “There’s supposed to be a meeting sometime today (Thursday) for the persons who are sitting on that fund, overseeing that process, to actually do the actual approval and the payouts. It should have been (Wednesday) but the parties didn’t come together, so that should happen sometime today.”

Mr Woods also said after yesterday’s concluded arrangement, displaced employees will also receive food coupons to assist them in securing grocery items. The approval is expected to quell the constant agitation from the hundreds of employees that have been out of a job since the hotel closed its doors to commence hurricane repairs in October.

The assistance is expected to be doled out in two ways: help in meeting mortgage, rent and/or various bill payments and obligations, and assistance for those who suffered flood damage and/or otherwise as a result of Hurricane Matthew.

According to Mr Woods, in order to capitalise on the financial assistance, One&Only employees would need to submit a request for payment, along with an application to the pension fund, and then the fund would send a letter along with a cheque to the various institutions, ScotiaBank, for example, authorising a payment of whichever amount to be made on behalf of the applicant.

If a request for assistance with rent payments is made, Mr Woods said the letter and cheque would go to the tenant.

It is unclear how soon persons will be able to capitalise on the financial assistance, however.

Last month, Bahamas Hotel Employers Association President Robert “Sandy” Sands confirmed that the BHCAWU had submitted a request to the pension fund in order to solicit financial assistance and otherwise for displaced One&Only employees.

BHCAWU President Nicole Martin had previously indicated in a voice note to One&Only employees and obtained by The Tribune, that the union was waiting on a “formal” agreement by the association, presumably the BHEA, to be able to access whatever funds are available in the health and welfare fund to provide financial assistance to the employees.

“This meeting would pretty much finalise all the processes,” Mr Woods said when contacted yesterday. “It would have gone through the first stage of vetting, now it has to go through the second. This would be the conclusion because the actual committee who actually will sign off on it, will be the ones to do that today (Thursday).

“We know the people are getting kind of antsy, but it’s not something that’s in our purview. We don’t control the movement on how it is handled.”

Mr Woods also said the union is still attempting to meet with One&Only officials over last month’s sudden termination of more than 60 employees, inclusive of management and line staff, from the Paradise Island-based luxury hotel.

At the time, the hotel cited the reason for conducting the pre-Christmas layoffs as a result of dissatisfaction over unsavory guest reviews about its staff.

Mr Woods had subsequently said that despite being blindsided by the terminations, the union would consult its attorneys and meet with One&Only representatives to find out the hotel’s rationale for the terminations before deciding its next move.

“We still trying to get the meeting,” he said. “Like I said because of the holidays they weren’t able to really solidify a date before the holidays so definitely we have to get with them, and also get with government because government was the (entity) who they initially spoke to in the absence of the union.

“I don’t know if the government had given them some undertaking as to what should happen, but we’re trying to get that out of the way as quickly as possible, because the resort is supposed to open from February, and actually they’re supposed to go into training as of the second week or third week of this month, based on what they would have told us in the initial meeting when they said nobody would lose their jobs.

“So I guess you have to wait and see what’s going to happen at the end of the day.”

The One&Only Ocean Club closed its doors temporarily to repair damage by Hurricane Matthew in October. The luxury hotel was initially expected to re-open at the beginning of December, but later confirmed that it had delayed its re-opening date to Valentine’s Day this year.

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