The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

AFTER six months of hotels being closed, a hotel union official said industry workers are being negatively impacted by the uncertainty and are solely reliant on government assistance.

Darren Woods, president of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union, said hotel workers could really use answers on their future, sooner rather than later.

“Number one, there is an air of uncertainty,” Mr Woods said. “They are only receiving government assistance, so until they are able to get back to gainful employment this is impacting them in a negative way because they are unable to provide for themselves or their families in a way that they would normally do.

“We are trying to find out from the resort operators when they are going to open. They have not given any definitive dates to anyone. Everyone is just pushing back the dates saying they will be re-evaluating it. We were hoping the hotels would open from July, that didn’t happen. Then they said they would reassess it for October, obviously they are pushing it back so we just don’t know.”

The union president said his members are anxious to know when they really will go back to work and when their unemployment assistance will end.

“The members basically want to know when the industry will open,” Mr. Woods said. “Like I said no one knows when. The hotel workers are still getting the extension, not the unemployment benefit from NIB, but the government’s (13-week) extension.

“I think the Prime Minister is supposed to make some communication to the House of Assembly in terms of extending the Emergency Orders and with that extension we need to know what is going to happen because if places are still not open, then what is the expectation of these people and then what is the government going to do to reciprocate?

“That would be discussions that have to be held in the not too distant future. Everyone wants to know if the NIB payments are going to stop this month. NIB is only the facilitator for the government’s assistance programme. The only person who can answer that is the government. We have been trying to get a meeting with them to get an understanding as to what to say to the people in our sector.”

Earlier this month, Minister of Tourism Dionisio D’Aguilar said the government was recommending hotels throughout the country resume full operations and use of beaches on October 15. At the time, he said he hoped there could be full re-opening of the tourism sector by early November with tourism officials eying November 1 for the reopening of tourism attractions, tours and excursions.

Since his announcement, several major properties, including Baha Mar, Melia Nassau Beach, Sandals Royal Bahamian and Club Med, have confirmed they will not reopen in the next few weeks, with the latter two pushing their return back into next year. Club Med will reopen in December 2021.

This has left industry workers in a state of flux.

“This thing that we are facing there is no rule book or manual that you can go to avoid this happening so you can do something else,” the president continued. “It is just a day by day thing that is so fluid it’s changing. They originally forecasted that you would get a second wave, now they are forecasting a third wave once it gets cooler.

“We need to now do what is in our best interest to make sure that we stay healthy and stop the spread so that we can get back to some kind of normalcy. I know one thing, the sooner the industry does open and people can get back to some sense of normalcy it will be good. It will take a strain off the public’s purse and people will be able to actually provide for themselves as they did before.”