The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Unionised hotel employees will continue their “work-to-rule” through the weekend after little progress was made in resolving differences with Atlantis at yesterday’s Labour Department meeting.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers (BHCAWU) president, told Tribune Business that “the status quo” over the Paradise Island resort’s “12 point” disciplinary system and proposed shift system for housekeeping staff remains with both sides due to meet again at 1pm on Monday.

He said he had informed John Pinder, director of labour, that the union was not willing to meet and negotiate with Atlantis executives outside the Department of Labour’s supervision, given what he described as the resort’s tendency to ignore it and proceed as it wished.

However, Mr Woods told this newspaper that Atlantis representatives were now “actually sitting and negotiating” with the hotel union having purportedly ignored its issues with the disciplinary and shift systems since September.

He added, though, that the union will “know exactly what our next move will be” following the outcome of Monday’s meeting, and said: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”

The meeting between Atlantis and the hotel union will follow that between the Prime Minister and multiple union leaders, as the Government moves to dampen an increasingly heated labour relations environment that threatens to disrupt the wider economy ahead of the Christmas season - the impact to the Princess Margaret Hospital being one example where the Bahamian public are placed at a disadvantage.

“We have to go back on Monday. They’ve [Atlantis] not agreed to do anything different; the status quo remains. We’ve got to to continue the talks on Monday, and it’s really hard for me to say what they’re going to do. They say one thing and go ahead and do something different,” Mr Woods told Tribune Business.

He revealed that Mr Pinder had asked the union, its shop stewards and Atlantis’s housekeeping department heads to meet and see if any workers have an interest in the shift system, which the resort plans to adopt from December 3.

“The union is doing whatever is necessary to try and bring resolution to it,” Mr Woods added. “We told the director we’re acting in good faith. On Monday we will know exactly what our next move will be. The work-to-rule continues until we get resolution.

“I told the director of labour we’re not meeting with them outside of the department. They’re actually talking to us now. We had told them what we’d like to see done, asked for information that was needed, and they went ahead and did it anyway. But they’re actually sitting and negotiating.

“The test of the pudding will be in the eating, and we just have to see what happens Monday. That will tell us which direction, whether to push further or if it will get resolved. I believe the union has done everything necessary to try and bring resolution to this issue.”

The hotel union’s work-to-rule extends to other properties that are members of the Bahamas Hotel and Restaurant Employers Association (BHREA), the industry’s bargaining group. These resorts include the Four Seasons Ocean Club; the British Colonial Hilton; Melia Nassau Beach; and Lyford Cay Club.

A “work to rule” means hotel union members will stick rigidly to their job descriptions and “not go beyond the call of duty”, so if their employer is short-staffed because of absences due to sickness and holidays they will simply go home and refuse to work any extra hours.

This previously prompted pleas, led by Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism, for the hotel union and its members not to engage in industrial action that could disrupt the sector’s projected “double digit” growth through the Christmas period and into the New Year.

He urged union leaders to “remain level headed” as The Bahamas “doesn’t need to jeopardise a very good thing right now” with the country’s largest industry set for “a very healthy Christmas” based on forward booking and air arrivals (stopover visitor) data.

He called on hotel workers not to “impair” the quality of visitor experiences by delivering “sub-standard service” through a “work-to-rule” or any form of industrial unrest, hinting that doing so would effectively undermine their own best interests.