The Tribune

THE announcement of 700 staff being made redundant at Atlantis yesterday will have sent a shiver down the spine of the Bahamian economy.

That total represents about a tenth of the workforce of the resort – and it shows we are still far from a recovery after COVID-19. Indeed, with case numbers still high and vaccination rates low, we’re very much in the thick of the fight.

From insiders, however, the move to offer redundancy might actually be helpful to some of the workforce who have been left in limbo for so long.

A number of workers had been calling for severance packages – for those who have been working at Atlantis for many years, that might represent a significant sum, which the released employees can use to cover debts that have built up during the pandemic.

Even the union president, Darrin Woods, said that the move would be welcomed by “scores of employees”.

Now Atlantis needs to find the right balance – offering voluntary redundancy where possible and limiting the compulsory redundancies to those that are necessary while still keeping the workforce the resort needs to move forward. That’s no easy task, and while some may welcome the resolution, it’s all brought about by a situation that no one wants.

Atlantis has held on a long time before making redundancies – with many other resorts having done so previously – and with prospects opening up such as Baha Mar’s water park and The Pointe, we hope those who do find themselves out of work won’t be that way for long.

In the meantime, as a community we should support those out of work in any way we can. We would hope the government would look to extend food support where needed, for example.

Those who do receive pay-offs will need to look at that money as needing to tide them over until the next opportunity comes along – it’s not going to be easy for many.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis is hopeful that things will improve by August to the extent that the emergency orders might not be needed any more – if that is so, that would be a good sign for our tourism business and our economy as a whole, and more opportunities might start to open up.

But we have to get there first – and there’s no guarantee that date won’t slip further back if we don’t make headway against the pandemic, and especially on our vaccination rate.

People aren’t going to want to come to visit a country that isn’t winning the fight against COVID-19. People want the holiday of a lifetime, not a holiday that could end their lifetime.

To all those who are grateful for the redundancy, and to all those worried about the future now, we wish you all the best.

To everyone else, the best thing you can do to help those looking afresh for jobs in the tourism industry is go and get your vaccination and help win this fight against COVID-19.

School stabbing

A 15-year-old boy is dead today after a stabbing at Government High School.

The life and the future of Kenm Paul was taken in an instant. A fight between four boys, two of which were stabbed – one of which was Kenm, who died on the campus where he studied.

“We do everything that we can,” said Education Minister Jeff Lloyd after the incident. He talked of police on campuses, security officers throughout schools, but that didn’t prevent the fight that led to Kenm’s death.

Assistant Superintendent Audley Peters talked of police presence at schools being “somewhat situational” during the pandemic, adding “we’ll revisit our presence (in) the school”.

The others involved in the fight are said to have scaled the school fence and left.

When we send our children to school, we trust that they will come back home at the end of the day. When we kiss them goodbye at the start of the day, we do not expect it will be for the last time.

Parents outside the gate of the campus talked of concerns, one saying “Government High is not a secure school. Every day I watch kids jumping the gate doing all types of foolishness. They don’t even have no police here”.

These are our children’s lives. What can we do to keep them safe? How do we stop knives getting on the campus, how do we stop the violence that has left a boy dead?

Whatever we’re doing is not enough. Whatever we do about that will be too late for Kenm – but we must do more to stop this happening again.