The Tribune

WHILE all eyes are on the Royal visit that began yesterday, there is one story that should not be drowned out in the fanfare.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, one of the immediate problems as global travel shut down and the stream of visitors became first a trickle then shut off entirely was what to do about all the workers at hotels and tourist locations.

The furlough scheme that was brought in bought time by ensuring that, in these extraordinary circumstances, employers did not have to pay severance to workers at the end of 90 days from the point at which staff were suspended.

It made no sense obviously to keep empty hotels fully staffed with money draining away and the prospect of that forcing the permanent closure of locations. We wanted to ensure that when the restrictions lifted, there would be jobs to go back to.

And so came the furlough scheme. It did its job – and it came to an end last month.

What is most welcome of all is that the furlough scheme’s expiration did not lead to a spree of sackings. With companies back in business, the remaining staff on furlough seem to have been largely welcomed back on board.

More than that, companies are eager to find more workers, according to the director of Labour, Robert Farquharson.

He pointed to Nassau Cruise Port needing 250 construction workers, and a major hotel asking his department for resumes of Bahamians available to fill 40 posts there.

In the pages of The Tribune, we have seen for ourselves a number of companies advertising for members of staff.

It is one more in a series of encouraging signs – yesterday we saluted another in Atlantis giving staff a pay rise, and news that vessel occupancy at the cruise port hit a post-pandemic record last Friday of 91 percent capacity.

The people who benefit from this most of all, of course, are the workers themselves. It has been a long, hard journey for many, but being back at work and having enough money for food on the table rather than depending on emergency distribution schemes. We cannot find words enough to say what that will mean to people.

As ever, it is not over – the news that around one in seven people are still unemployed means that the push to rebuild the economy and give everyone opportunities must still go on. But each of these pieces of economic news show the clouds are lifting, slowly but surely.

A salute

In today’s Tribune, columnist Diane Phillips salutes one of our own – Brent Stubbs, whose reports on the world of Sports have graced The Tribune for decades.

Every word of praise is well-earned, and we are lucky to have him. We heartily encourage readers to read the whole column. Notably, he has also been on his own journey in recent years, and in May he will be named a reverend at his church in Fox Hill.

That won’t stop him writing, however! And we’re very glad of that.