The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The hotel union’s president is moving his strike vote certificate “within easy reach”, while warning the minister of labour that “he may not have a Christmas vacation this year”.

Darrin Woods, head of The Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU), told Tribune Business that its 6,000-plus members have been told “not to work beyond their job descriptions and employment contracts” in what is effectively a ‘work to rule’ in The Bahamas’ largest industry.

And he warned that industrial action could escalate into work slowdowns, stoppages and, ultimately, strike action unless the union saw faster progress in negotiating a first industry-wide industrial agreement for almost seven years.

The union’s stance, Mr Woods explained, has also been fuelled by the Supreme Court’s recent rejection of its bid for an injunction that would have prevented the Four Seasons Ocean Club from switching to a bi-weekly payroll and away from the previous weekly one.

He argued that the Paradise Island resort had introduced the new payroll system at the worst possible time during the low point of the tourism season, with workers sometimes working just one to two days per week now having to wait 14 days for their pay.

Besides establishing a precedent that could be followed by other resorts, Mr Woods said the Ocean Club’s move also showed how resort industry employers were exploiting the absence of a valid industrial agreement to push through changes they desired in anticipation that the union will have limited recourse.

However, the union’s ‘work to rule’ action, with the threat of more to follow, comes at a time when the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) yesterday revealed to Tribune Business that occupancy levels for the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays - which kickstart the peak winter season - were “slightly off pace” for many Nassau resorts post-Dorian compared to prior years.

The BHTA added, though, that many hotels were now “gaining ground” following an “acceleration” in booking pace over the past few weeks, and most were projecting “they will meet, if not fall slightly short” of 2018 comparatives for the two holidays. This, though, could be endangered if there is any further or expanded industrial action in the resort industry.

“As of today, occupancy levels for the Thanksgiving and Christmas periods are slightly off-pace for many hotels in New Providence,” the BHTA told this newspaper. “However, the Thanksgiving Holiday as of recent years has not been as robust as peak holidays such as Christmas.

“Overall, bookings have accelerated significantly following the immediate weeks post-Dorian, and properties are gaining ground as the peak season approaches. Most properties anticipate they will meet, if not fall slightly short, of last year’s performance figures for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

The Association added: “Forecasts for the New Year are cautiously optimistic. However, it is important to note it is not anticipated that Nassau/Paradise Island will see the same increase in year-over-year performance indicators, considering the destination will not have the same significant injection of room inventory into the... market with the full opening of Baha Mar. The 2019 comparative performance indicators will be calculated with existing, steadied room inventory levels.”

Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of government and external affairs, told Tribune Business that industrial action in the resort/tourism industry was “not warranted at this time” for the same reasons given yesterday Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation.

“We would be very concerned,” he told this newspaper, “and be hopeful that cooler heads will prevail, negotiations continue and all industrial action is put aside in light of coming off a difficult period with Dorian. And, in this time, that we all work together to get business levels back to pre-Dorian. The booking pace is beginning to rebound. It’s definitely picked up in the last couple of weeks.”

However, Mr Woods confirmed that the union is nursing - and aiming to obtain redress for - grievances relating to the industrial agreement negotiations and Justice Keith Thompson’s verbal October 28 decision over the dispute with the Ocean Club.

“We went to court with the Ocean Club seeking an injunction to prohibit them from moving to bi-weekly from weekly [payroll] because the hotel industry is a weekly industry, “the union president told Tribune Business. “They implemented this during the slow period, so can you imagine employees working two weeks to get four days’ salary?

“I am very concerned. Again, the industry is a weekly paid industry, and to move from one thing to the next...... We now have to take the position of galvanising the members to protect themselves. They sent a loud message in May when they came out to vote to strike.”

Mr Woods said Justice Thompson’s ruling effectively sent the message that there in an industrial relations “free for all” in the hotel industry given that the union and Bahamas Hotel and Restaurant Employers Association (BHREA), the group that negotiates on the industry’s behalf, have not had a signed and registered industrial agreement since 2003.

“He said the union now needs to do what is necessary to get a contract,” he added. “He said that in the absence of a contract the union has no voice except for collective bargaining. He said the only thing the union is for is industrial negotiations.”

Mr Woods added that the BHCAWU disagreed with the Supreme Court, pointing out that articles eight and nine of its recognition agreement enable it to negotiate contracts with the employers’ association on pay, working terms and conditions, and individual properties where its members are impacted individually.

“Since it’s a ‘free for all’, the employers are going to do what they want to do, and for the employees they need to be able to reciprocate,” he told Tribune Business. “We told our members to write to human resources requesting a copy of their job description and contract of employment.

“We said to work within the confines of your jobs description and contract of employment because if you work outside it, it may form a precedent for what you have to do. The other thing we’re talking about is work to rule, go slow, and if it happens, a withdrawal of labour.

“The employers, in the absence of a contract, are going ahead and making all kinds of changes even though we’re the sole bargaining agent for these people.” The last valid agreement between the two sides expired in January 2013, and negotiations on a new deal only began this year after the union under former president Nicole Martin missed the deadline to submit a proposal for a new one.

Mr Woods accused hotel employers of “moving the goal posts” constantly in a bid to thwart negotiations. He added that the former Christie administration’s failure to amend the Industrial Relations Act as the union wanted, so that agreements with employers were considered binding whether they were registered or not, had also hurt its position.

“We’re ready to wrap this thing up,” Mr Woods said of the current talks. “We told the people on the other side that we were not negotiating for more than four months. Some of them said it might take 12 months, but we’re not going to waste no time given that a contract has not been in effect since 2013.

“We were trying to improve the language, but this thing put a new spin on it. We were talking about possible changes, and then said: ‘Let’s move on to the financial package and get it done’.”

Warning that the union’s further moves depend on the approach of hotel employers, Mr Woods told Tribune Business: “Everybody’s pretending to play dopey, but we’re going to shine a light on them in short order. We will put a light on the hole where they’re hiding.

“I’m starting to put them [strike vote certificate] in the front pocket because they’re in easy reach. There’s never a good strike, never a good time to hold a ‘go slow’, never a good time to rule to work. The time is now. The Bible tells you that when you have God on your side at the end of the day it has to work out. No storm I’ve been in lasts for ever.

“The minister of labour [Dion Foulkes] is going to have to find a way to get us into negotiations, put us in a room and we don’t come out until we have a signed and registered agreement. He’s done it before with Restaurant Bahamas (KFC). The only difference is here we have five [agreements] that need work. He may not have a Christmas vacation this year.”

“I’m starting to put them in the front pocket because they’re easy to reach