The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

and FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporters

The Government’s top labour official yesterday said “we received that miracle” asked for as the hotel union’s president hailed an 11 percent “across the board” wage increase from the new industrial deal.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) chief, hailed the industrial agreement reached with the Bahamas Hotel and Restaurant Employers Association as “significant” and “historic” after the two sides broke their impasse by agreeing to an 11 percent salary increase for all union members over the five-year deal.

“We were back and forth Friday, Monday and Tuesday, up until late trying to come up with an agreement,” Mr Woods said. “We were able to get 11 percent across-the-board for both the tipped and the non-tipped” workers.

“It is significant and also historic. It has taken a long time for us to get to where we are today. We are grateful that we were able to come to an agreement without any major disruption, which is something that we were trying to do,” the union president added.

Separately, Howard Thompson, the Government’s director of labour, said in a message to Tribune Business that he had received the signed document late on Wednesday night confirming the two sides have “finally reached an accord”.

“I had said a couple weeks ago that my department and my mediation team ‘were operating on faith’, and I subsequently said after negotiations reach an impasse last week that ‘we now needed a miracle’. We asked and now we received that miracle,” he said.

“After 11 years of no agreement, and two to three years of intense negotiations between the parties, there is finally peace in the form of an agreement. To say myself, as director of labour, and my mediation team are happy is an understatement. We are elated.”

The Bahamas Hotel and Restaurant Employers Association, which represents Atlantis, the Ocean Club, Lyford Cay Club and Town Hotel, said the agreement now has to be ratified by the individual resort properties but will cover the 5,000-strong bargaining unit through to 2029.

Russell Miller, the senior Atlantis executive who is the Association’s president, said in a statement: “We look forward to a new collaborative relationship with the union. Both organisations deserve credit for working out this constructive step forward.

“Our team members make a difference in the lives of our guests and co-workers each day. Their well-being is fundamental to our success. We are pleased to reach an agreement so they can receive the pay and benefits they deserve.”

Mr Woods, meanwhile, explained it was important for the union to advocate for all its employees and it could not sign an industrial agreement without ensuring tipped workers also received a base pay increase.

He said: “This last portion of the agreement was pretty much on the wages because, of course, management was saying that their position was for the tipped category, in particular, once they got minimum wage that’s all they were prepared to give at that time for them.

“And so we said to them, we cannot sign an agreement where there is no increase for that group of persons because we couldn’t discriminate against them. Whenever we negotiate, we negotiate for the union across the board. So, of course, there was a back and forth, with government intervention.”

It is unclear whether the 11 percent increase for tipped workers includes the minimum wage rise plus what the Association’s members are now giving them, or 11 percent on top of the minimum wage increase. The hotels had also sought to previously include last year’s voluntary pay increase for non-tipped workers in the overall rise, so it is also uncertain how that is being dealt with.

Mr Woods maintained that the union’s goal was to “empower” its members and improve the base pay for tipped employees so they are better able to access bank credit and improve their living standards.

He said: “For us it was more about empowering and advancing our people than the money. If it was about the money we would’ve signed a long time ago.

“We want to make sure that we are able to lift them up, try to get them a little bit more higher over the poverty line and also be able to advance them by virtue of lifting their base pay and increasing their buying power to go and negotiate on the strength of the base pay.

“Of course, whatever comes from the tips will add to it, but we wanted to make sure that not so much is placed on the gratuities and more focus is placed on the wages in order to better their lives.”

Mr Woods said the union was determined to be disprove the narrative that they are not diplomatic in their negotiations, but the talks did reach a point where they became “contentious”.

He said: “We tried to bring a different type of decorum to the negotiations in that we tried the diplomacy route. People always accuse the union and say you need to exercise more diplomacy. We’ve been trying that over the years but you know there are times when you get to a particular point that it becomes contentious. This was one of them.”

Mr Woods added that the industrial agreement will be edited to include the new wage increase and he expects the final version to be signed next week.

He said: “That goes into effect once we put that particular portion into the agreement, have the agreement vetted and then we’ll have an official signing of the document once we would’ve done what is necessary to have that portion done away with. We’re really shooting for some time next week to have this done.”

During the two sides’ stalemate, Mr Woods had complained the Association was sticking to its previously stated position, which is that tipped workers and other minimum wage staff will not necessarily receive the 8 percent “across-the- board” salary increase the BHCAWU wants for all members.

Its stance was that such workers, who mainly gain the bulk of their income from guest tips, should receive “whichever is greater” - last year’s minimum wage increase or an 8 percent pay rise, but not both - when it comes to their base salary.

That would have meant that if a hotel worker’s base pay increased by more than 8 percent due to the Government raising the minimum wage last year, they would not be entitled to a further rise under the new industrial agreement.

And he alleged that the Association had also revised its position such that its members want to deduct the 3 percent pay increase they gave voluntarily to non- tipped staff last year from that 8 percent, thus cutting their pay rise to 5 percent.