The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

and YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporters

A senior Baha Mar executive was last night "unsure what caused" the delay in resort employees receiving their unemployment benefit but said the situation had been resolved at one of its properties.

Robert Sands, Baha Mar's senior vice-president of external and government affairs, told Tribune Business that "the Melia situation has been resolved" with the National Insurance Board (NIB) advancing the $100 per week benefit to the resort so it can be distributed to eligible furloughed employees.

He added that the Cable Beach mega resort had also supplied a list of furloughed employees at its Grand Hyatt, SLS and Rosewood-branded hotels to NIB some two weeks ago, and was working with the Government and its agencies to resolve the matter.

"We've finalised the list to the Government," Mr Sands said. "We continue to work with them on the Baha Mar side, and have forwarded the list to the Government so we're waiting on the outcome of that.

"We're trying to determine what the problem is. We're not certain what caused it. It's unfortunate that it got to this particular point, but we're working to resolve it. It's fair to say the Government is in possession of our list. It's been in for a couple of weeks."

One Melia Nassau Beach resort employees spoken to Tribune Business last night said they had yet to be notified that their $100 per week benefit had been sent or was in their bank account. "They aren't saying anything to the employees," they added.

Mr Sands spoke out after Brensil Rolle, minister with responsibility for the public service and National Insurance, told Tribune Business that the Baha Mar had failed to supply the Government with a list of still-furloughed employees at its Grand Hyatt, SLS and Rosewood brands as well as the Melia Nassau Beach resort.

He explained that the Government required this information, which is requested from all other hotels and employers with still temporarily laid-off staff, so that the National Insurance Board (NIB) - which is administering the now-taxpayer funded benefits - can verify that each worker's status has remained unchanged.

Explaining that this was done "to cover our backs", and ensure the Government's scarce resources were directed to those most in need, instead of unemployment benefits going to persons who had gone back to work, Mr Rolle said he was "puzzled" by Baha Mar's failure to send its employee list.

Mr Rolle said the Cable Beach-based mega resort had always co-operated in supplying the names of furloughed employees up until the point that benefits were cut to $100 a few weeks ago. And Mr Sands, too, indicated he was puzzled by the delayed benefit payments given that these had never occurred whenever Baha Mar had previously submitted its lists.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union's (BHCAWU) president, yesterday told Tribune Business that he had pressed for his members' at the Melia to receive priority attention because - unlike their Baha Mar counterparts - they were not being paid 30 percent of their salary while on furlough.

Mr Rolle had told this newspaper NIB and the Government had netted off this 30 percent payment against the unemployment benefits they were due, effectively paying the difference, and Mr Woods said this was where the problem had occurred.

“Apparently what was happening is because Baha Mar is saying that for employee salaries, government or NIB wants to be able to deduct whatever their employees received from their assistance payments," he said.

“We don't represent Baha Mar; the Melia is attached to Baha Mar. The Melia isn’t paying their employees anything, so you have Melia caught in the middle of his wrangling between the government and the property. So what we tried to do is see if we could get Melia back out of the equation so they can be paid, because they're not receiving any payments from the hotel.”

Mr Woods added: “What we are saying is take the Melia out of the equation so the Melia employees can be paid because they're not receiving any payments from their employer now. Melia is under Baha Mar. Baha Mar is paying their employees some 30 percent of their salary.

“What NIB is saying is send us a listing of your employees who you're paying so we can verify and cross reference it because we want to deduct from the unemployment benefit or a government extension what you would have paid them.

“Baha Mar is saying that's not fair to the employees because we're giving them a benefit, and what you're doing for them should not be tied to the benefit that we're giving them by way of payment. Melia is not receiving that same benefit. They're getting nothing," the union chief continued.

"But no one has been paid because the names have not been submitted property-wide. Now what we’re trying to do is say if the company isn’t paying the Melia employees, take them out of the equation so NIB could pay them and you can stop the wrangling with the people who are getting paid. It might sound selfish but let’s deal with some and then you can deal with the rest.”