The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A trade union leader yesterday said he has taken court action against Atlantis on behalf of individual workers over claims involving unfair dismissal, breach of contract and COVID-19 redundancy pay.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business he has filed paperwork with the Supreme Court over the resort’s failure to make requested redundancy payments to staff who have been furloughed for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “What we have done is that we are dealing with this individually. A few of the members and workers have come forward, and we have filed appropriate action on that basis.” Refusing to provide documents, or detail how many Atlantis workers he is representing, Mr Ferguson said: “Members from Atlantis have come to me for representation and we have filed appropriate action in the courts.

“I’m representing quite a bit of workers on this court action. I’m sifting through the batch that have asked for redundancy, and it is quite a lot of them. Then there are the ones for breach of contract and there are some for unfair dismissal. There are quite a bit of workers who have made their situation known.”

He added that his actions are based on two points. “The workers are saying that they want redundancy pay so they could absorb some of these outstanding bills that they have now, and that’s where this issue is going to boil down to,” said Mr Ferguson.

He argued that Atlantis, or any resort that has temporarily laid-off workers due to the pandemic, will find it difficult to depend on the government’s COVID Emergency Orders suspending section 28C of the Employment Act for up to 30 days after these provisions expire. This, Mr Ferguson said, is because there is no Section 28C in the Employment Act.

He added: “We are going to court with everything that is relevant, and we are going to do what we have to do. The system is not structured for working people. If there is going to be an amendment, it is not only the employer that is involved but the employees as well.

“So, if there is going to be an amendment to the legislation, particularly where it speaks to staying their particular benefits that they are entitled to, they need to know and they need to be a part of the process.”

John Pinder, director of labour, speaking to Tribune Business yesterday, said: “Certainly Mr Ferguson has some grounds if there is no section 28C in the Employment Act. I don’t think the government has been made aware of that. From a legal aspect, Mr Ferguson and the attorney general need to work that out, but to my knowledge redundancy pay has been suspended.

“The court has to make a ruling on this if this is the case. Atlantis has to pay the people. Whatever ruling the court makes then it will be binding on the employer.”

Mr Pinder added: “I thought it was a wise thing for the government to suspend redundancies so that the employers didn’t find themselves in bankruptcy trying to sell assets to pay off the debt owed to persons who they had to make redundant.

“Secondly, it secured the jobs of these people that once the economy began to rebound, it would be better because now you are seeing everybody is starting to go back to work. But if they had made these people redundant they would have had to have hired all of these people back at entry level or at a lower level post in most cases.”