The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister said some 2,000-3,000 Atlantis staff remain on furlough following yesterday’s termination of 700 workers, with no sign that other resorts plan to follow suit.

Dion Foulkes, minister for labour and transportation, speaking to reporters outside the Cabinet Office, said the government was encouraged that 3,500 Atlantis staff - or just under 50 percent of its total 7,300-strong workforce prior to yesterday’s cuts - had been recalled to work.

He added: “I wish to emphasise that since Atlantis closed, and all 700 people have been laid off, more than half - some 3,500 persons - have already been re-engaged. Now, if you take the 3,500 and the 700, that leaves an additional 2,000-plus persons who are still on temporary lay-off. The government is hopeful that they will be able to be re-engaged in due course.”

With yesterday’s redundancies reducing the Paradise Island mega resort’s workforce to 6,600, Tribune Business’s calculations - based on the 3,500 recalled worker figure given by Mr Foulkes - suggest that some 3,100 staff remain on furlough.

“The government has not received any indication from any resorts in New Providence or Grand Bahama or the Family Islands on any intended terminations,” Mr Foulkes added. He confirmed that severance payments for Atlantis workers began yesterday, and said: “The severance packages and the notification will be made to each affected employee.”

Mr Foulkes urged terminated workers to register with the Department of Labour’s employment exchange, and use their financial packages to fund potential entrepreneurial ventures given that the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) is available to help them.

“There are two big prospects on the horizon now,” Mr Foulkes said. “The Pointe development, which intends to hire some 500 to 600 permanent employees, and also Baha Mar Bay. Their new development that they’re opening in a couple of months, I think they are aiming to hire some 700 employees, so I wish to encourage the 700 workers who are affected today to also access those opportunities.”

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, said of Atlantis’ action: “A lot of the hotels would have done their downsizing and terminations. Atlantis was the single largest employer of hotel workers in the country. Many of them would have been on staff for decades, and so as a result they accumulated a significant severance amount.

“Whereas Baha Mar really had only been in operation for three to four years, and so their severance amounts were smaller in comparison to those at Atlantis. So Atlantis had to manage their cash flow situation, and when they were in best position to bring this about, they brought it about.”

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business there needs to be wider consultation with trade unions whenever workers are terminated.

He said: “What I do know is that the Ministry of Labour should be working out anything pertaining to the workers with the labour movement. You can’t introduce a policy that will have a far-reaching effect on a group of people without going to their representatives.”