The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR Minister Dion Foulkes revealed yesterday the government and The Pointe's executives have conflicting numbers when it comes to the worker ratio at the $200m West Bay Street development.

The minister told The Tribune a discrepancy was discovered in information gathered during a survey by labour officials at the property just two months ago.

He said as a result, government and hotel officials are trying to reconcile the issue.

"We have done a survey at The Pointe, that would have been about two months ago and The Pointe's results conflict with our internal results," Mr Foulkes said yesterday when this newspaper asked whether the government continued to monitor the labour situation there.

"Both the Department of Labour and the management of The Pointe we are trying to reconcile the two results. The Pointe tells us depending on when you come you could get a different percentage in terms of the Bahamian component of the employment, but we are analysing that. We don't want to make a public statement with respect to that until we get the facts."

Mr Foulkes said while the government will continue to honour the Heads of Agreement with the developer signed under the previous Christie administration, ideally the government would prefer the worker ratio to be 80 percent Bahamian to 20 percent foreign workers.

As it stands the HoA calls for a 70 percent to 30 percent ratio.

"The Heads of Agreement signed by the previous government had a 70/30 split; our policy is to have 80/20 split, 80 percent Bahamas and 20 percent non-Bahamian at a maximum. We have agreed to honour, as all governments do, any agreement signed by the previous government," he said yesterday when he was asked whether anything could be done to change the clause and in affect its interpretation.

Last September, Mr Foulkes admitted the agreement had two interpretations adding the Minnis administration had opted to interpret the clause that calls for a 70/30 labour split in favour of Bahamians, as a requirement to be satisfied over the lifetime of the project, and not a static ratio.

At the time Mr Foulkes was challenged by Progressive Liberal Party leader and former minister of works, Philip Davis, who called on him to provide the clause.

Mr Davis also questioned why the government would adopt an interpretation that disadvantaged Bahamians.

In May 2018, the Department of Labour found a disproportionate number of foreign workers to Bahamian workers at the downtown project.

At the time, there were 73 foreign workers and 24 Bahamians working on the site.

Pointe labour force concerns were made public last year after Tribune photographers monitored who went on to the construction site and with the exception of three or four Bahamians and a guard at the gates of the development, everyone else appeared to be Chinese.

In January and February 2018, this newspaper observed workers on the site and it was a similar story. Dozens of Chinese builders walked on to the site every day from a building, which lodges the workers opposite the development, and virtually no Bahamians were anywhere to be seen.