The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP and NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Reporters

Resort staff are planning to hold their own 'Battle 4 Atlantis' today by staging a march over the Paradise Island bridge to demand that they receive full severance packages from the mega hotel.

Adrian Francis, head of the Operation Sovereign Bahamas advocacy group, the principal march organiser, told Tribune Business it was expected to attract over 150 persons when it starts at 9am today from Eastern Parade on East Bay and Dowdeswell Streets.

"What has happened is many persons who were employed at the Atlantis resort, and who are on furlough or those who have been laid off, they have been requesting help in trying to get compensation up to the 13-week period," Mr Francis said.

"Because of the Employment Act, these persons are supposed to be made redundant after 12 weeks. Prime Minister Minnis, in his own wisdom, decided to change all of that and what he did was that he changed the law so that the resorts would not have to pay the redundancies.”

His comments refer to the Government's decision to suspend the Employment Act provisions that mandate employers must pay full severance/redundancy to workers who have been furloughed, or sent home, after 90 days/13 weeks or otherwise recall them to work.

This provision is suspended until 30 days after the Government's COVID-19 emergency powers orders, which presently last until end-October, cease. In effect, this means that the requirement for any Bahamas-based business to pay full severance to furloughed workers has been put on hold until end-November 2020.

The Government implemented the suspension in a bid to protect jobs amid the business closures forced by the COVID-19 lockdown and other restrictions. However, with Atlantis and other major resorts having been closed for more than six months with no indication yet as to when they are re-opening, pressure is growing from their respective workforces to receive severance pay.

Workers are arguing that they can no longer survive on the present $150 per week government unemployment benefit, which is insufficient to cover their bills, make ends meet and pay banks/landlords what they are due.

Some thus view full severance pay as a better short-term option, seeing it as a means to obtain greater financial resources that will carry them through until the economy re-opens and recovers. However, there is no guarantee jobs will be available on the other side.

"What these persons are saying is pay us our redundancies," Mr Francis said. "Nine out of 10 persons, where we have up to 800 persons in our database, who have come through in meetings over the last two weeks, have asked to be made redundant for whatever reason. So those persons are protesting tomorrow.

"We have sold an excess of 300 t-shirts, so we believe that the people will come out.” A flyer for the march, obtained by Tribune Business, billed it as the Staff Battle 4 Atlantis, a twist on the name of the annual US college basketball tournament that the resort holds every year but which has been cancelled for 2020. "Pay us our money," is the tag-line.

Mr Francis said: “We are meeting at the Eastern Parade. We are going to stretch out on the Eastern Parade straight down East Bay Street, and we intend to march over Paradise Island on one side of the bridge and come back down on the other side.

"We are going to be demonstrating on Paradise Island. We are meeting at 8am tomorrow morning, and we are going to leave at 9am to go over the bridge. We are expecting at least 150 persons today.”

Atlantis, sensing the mood, last week wrote to all its near-8,000 staff explaining why it was "premature" to make any of them permanently redundant in a bid to dampen down any potential protest.

Audrey Oswell, the Paradise Island mega resort's president and managing director, said the continued uncertainty over occupancy levels and bookings whenever the resort does re-open meant it was too early to determine staffing needs. This was despite conceding that Atlantis has already assessed scenarios where some posts would be eliminated.

"I know some of you have reached a point where your preference is for Atlantis to make your employment redundant," Ms Oswell admitted. "I hear you. I want you to know that we have thoroughly reviewed and considered a scenario where certain roles are eliminated as we wait out the re-opening of our resort.

"As we press forward with current and future challenges, including re-opening the property and building back guest bookings in the midst of COVID-19, we have no certainty as to what business levels will be when we do re-open. Therefore, it would be premature to separate you from the company permanently at this time."

To lessen the blow, Atlantis is making five days' worth of vacation payments to its union and "Level 8" non-union staff, and four days' worth to non-union members. The first payment, for October, will be paid on the 15th, with subsequent payments made on the last payroll date preceding the month in which the next disbursement is due to take place.

However, sources drew this newspaper's attention to evidence that indicates the threat of protests over the redundancy issue has forced Atlantis to alter its position on vacation pay. They produced a letter, sent out by the resort earlier during the COVID-19 pandemic, which explicitly said: "All team members who remain on furlough will be unable to request vacation at this time."

The sources also pointed out that the suspension of the Employment Act's furlough-related clause covers the period through Thanksgiving to end-November, which is when the Government is hoping many resorts will re-open.