The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR Minister Keith Bell has announced the Department of Labour is partnering with the management of Sandals, specifically to ascertain how many of the 106 soon-to-be former employees of the Hilton can be hired at the resort’s properties.

This includes either the Sandals Royal Bahamian resort in Nassau, the Emerald Bay Hotel in Exuma or the Fowl Cay Resort in the Exuma Cays.

It was anticipated that Sandals will require additional staffing to complement the 800-plus Bahamians who are presently employed at the Royal Bahamian property, according to the minister.

The owners of the British Colonial Hilton Hotel formally advised the government of their intention to close the hotel indefinitely with effect from February 15. The Ministry of Labour and Immigration confirmed 106 Bahamians are expected to be made redundant on or before that date.

The minister advised that government officials have had discussions with the management of the Hilton and have been assured that redundancy pay will be paid immediately to the employees being made redundant.

He explained yesterday that a job fair will be held February 12 between 8am and 3pm at the Department of Labour’s headquarters located in the City Corporate Centre, Rosetta Street.

All of the 106 employees are specially invited to attend the fair and come prepared to be screened, interviewed and hired by Sandals for one of the three properties.

“Over the past four months, the Ministry of Labour and the management of Sandals have developed an excellent working relationship. In the spirit of partnership, therefore, we entered into discussions with the view to assist employees affected by the aforementioned closure,” Mr Bell explained.

“I am extremely proud to announce that the Department of Labour is again partnering with the management of Sandals, specifically to ascertain how many of the 106 former employees of the Hilton can be hired at either the Royal Bahamian resort here in Nassau, the Emerald Bay hotel in Exuma or the Fowl Cay Resort in the Exuma Cays.”

Adrian Whitehead, Sandals’ general manager, said their intention is to hire as many of the workers as is “physically possible”.

“The employees at the Hilton have experience (within) the industry,” he said “They understand what’s going on. They understand, obviously, standards. They have a good grounding so it makes sense for us to engage persons that have already got a certain amount of training and a certain amount of initiative in the industry as well. We also feel that the size of that team has obviously been reduced over time given the occupancy. . .So we know that they’ve got to be the best people as well so we’d be crazy not to take up that opportunity.”

He added: “As soon as we can get them on board, we can engage them. Obviously, there are certain pieces of paperwork that need to be in place, but we’ve already been refining our onboarding process to make it as fast as possible. We’re expecting to run good occupancy over the next few weeks. The next few months we need people, so it’s a great opportunity to fill those gaps with people that have already got a grounding in the industry and understand it, we can bring them on board fast. If I can get them in before the end of the month, if I can get them before the week I will bring them in. We are really looking to move them quickly.”

The general manager added that Sandals’ occupancy “forecast is strong”.

Meanwhile, Mr Bell expressed confidence that the employment woes with the Hilton will be resolved.

“I’ve been asked by the media this morning as I went into the House of Assembly, what are the unemployment numbers. Again we need to do the census, but in the interim what is happening here at Sandals is to ensure that there is not an increase as far as we possibly can in terms of the unemployment in The Bahamas. . .I’m certain that all of the employees of the Hilton hotel will be hired.”