The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE hotel union’s president has accused Atlantis of trying to financially “break the backs” of employees after it decided to unilaterally change how gratuities are paid.

Darrin Woods, Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union president, told The Tribune yesterday that food and beverage department workers were “up in arms” over the mega resort’s decision to pay “extra” gratuity bi-weekly, instead of at the end of every shift.

The change also means that these gratuities are subject to taxes, Mr Woods said.

When contacted, an Atlantis spokesperson said the resort “is actively in discussions with our team members to amicably address the matter.”

The Tribune understands the resort has on two occasions sent communication to the union that there were plans to handle gratuity differently.

Mr Woods admitted that the hotel’s position was made known, but he said it was objected to as neither the workers nor the union agreed.

“They are unilaterally making some changes over there to the food and beverage area where the persons are no longer able to get their extra gratuity at the end of the night,” the union chief said in an interview.

“The employees are up in arms about this because if you know the history of gratuity, it is for service rendered and people always say if you give good service people will pay additional sums of money,” Mr Woods said.

“So, here now you have persons because they’ve given good service, they are given extra gratuity and now management has decided that instead of them being able to receive these monies they now have to wait two weeks in order to get it because again they’ve unilaterally changed their terms and conditions to every two weeks.

“The extra gratuity was always used as a bridge that they could buy this or that or buy food, put gas in their cars and do things for their children. Now they have to wait a whole two weeks before they can get it and now the gratuity is subject to whatever tax.

“The employees are up in arms because their thing is that the employer does not care about their well-being and the way they are able to continue to have some form of peace at night.”

While both the workers and union object to the change, Mr Woods said this did not mean they were ungrateful for their jobs after not working for months due to COVID-19.

“What is amazing is it seems that because they were offered a job, they ought to be grateful to work because they have been without work for a long time. They are happy and grateful to be back to work, but people also want to work with comfort and a peace of mind,” he said.

Asked whether the union was left in the dark over the move, Mr Woods said: “They sent us a communication that this is what they were going to do. We said this cannot be done because a part of gratuity and the distribution of it has to be agreed with the union and the employee and the union does not agree and the employee does not agree.

“They say this is industry standard but there is nowhere in the industry this is being done. This is a company policy.

“We see it as a way to try and break the backs of workers by holding them back financially.”

The resort welcomed its workers back on the job earlier this month after closing its doors in March due to a decline in guests as a result of travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.