The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Old Bahama Bay resort’s management takeover was yesterday said to be “in a holding pattern” amid calls for ministerial intervention to resolve the labour-related issues causing delay.

Michael Scott KC, attorney for LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings, the hotel’s two corporate owners, in an April 1, 2025, letter urged Pia Glover-Rolle, minister of labour and the public service, to step in because Department of Labour officials in Grand Bahama were allegedly “exacting pressure” on his clients to assume liabilities they are not responsible for.

He asserted that Old Bahama Bay’s owners, who had wanted to fully reclaim management and operational control at the property by last Friday, should not be forced to pick up the bill for staff termination pay and other benefits due to them. These, he argued, are the responsibility of Island Ventures Resort and Club (IVRC), the management entity they are seeking to replace, as the staff are its employees.

LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings have, since March 28, been waiting on a formal written go-ahead from the Department of Labour to execute their plans for “rehiring most” of the Old Bahama Bay employees once they are terminated and released by IVRC. Mr Scott yesterday branded the unexpected hold-up as “ridiculous”, and told Tribune Business will move to “change the locks” today even if no permission is received.

Urging Mrs Glover-Rolle to intervene, he wrote: “As you may be aware our clients had a bare licence agreement with IVRC in relation to the management of certain facilities at Old Bahama Bay, and which licence was terminated effective March 28, 2025; Friday last.

“For reasons which are unknown to me, the Grand Bahama Labour Department has been contacted in relation to the termination of IVRC employees and/or sub-licensees employed at Old Bahama Bay and were exacting pressure on my clients to assume severance and termination obligations, which are the responsibility of IVRC.

“As far as I am concerned, and based on my experience and knowledge of employment law, the termination obligations for employees and/or sub-licensees of IVRC are the responsibility of IVRC up to the termination date: March 28, 2025,” Mr Scott continued.

“Thereafter, it is the intention of new operators engaged at the instance of my clients to re-hire most of the persons whose employment would have been terminated as of Friday last under new arrangements with new operators. This notwithstanding, the issue remains as to liability for severance and termination benefits which have accrued up to the termination date mentioned above.”

Tribune Business understands that more than 50 employees may be caught in the termination pay and associated benefits impasse. LRA-OBB and Resorts Holdings, via Mr Scott, are adamant they will not themselves pay liabilities which they assert are the responsibility of IVRC, an entity formed by a group of Old Bahama Bay condo owners to run the resort following Ginn’s 2011 debt default.

IVRC, though, has yet to agree to relinquish Old Bahama Bay’s management or terminate its employees. In this situation, were LRA-OBB, Resorts Holdings and the new management team to re-hire them now, these staff could be deemed to have resigned and waived their entitlement to termination pay and other benefit rights.

“Your Labour Department in Freeport promised to fully consider the matter and revert by the close of business last Friday afternoon with their opinion,” Mr Scott told Mrs Glover-Rolle. “Today is April 1, 2025, and my clients have yet to hear from the Labour Department. As you will, undoubtedly, be aware the legal issue is really quiet straightforward. 

“IVRC are liable under the general law, and under the Employment Act 2001 as amended, for the termination, severance and any other emoluments up to and including the termination date. The legal position is uncontroversial. Our clients are anxious to get on with new arrangements with new operators and should, therefore, be grateful for your kind intervention to resolve this matter at the very earliest.”

Should Mrs Glover-Rolle agree, this would be the second government intervention in the Old Bahama Bay management takeover saga. Phylicia Woods-Hanna, the Government’s investment chief, previously demanded that Orlando-based Kingwood International Resorts and its affiliates “cease and desist” from having any role in events because their involvement would “violate” Bahamian law. 

This was because the Davis administration, in 2022, twice rejected Kingwood’s application to acquire both Old Bahama Bay and the 2,000-plus acres that represented the former Ginn project. IVRC and others have voiced fears that Kingwood is hiding behind LRA-OBB’s corporate identity to disguise its involvement in the management takeover, but the Old Bahama Bay owner has denied this and said it is directing all actions.

Mr Scott yesterday told Tribune Business there had been no further progress since he sent his Tuesday letter to Mrs Glover-Rolle. He added, though, that LRA-OBB had been informally told that the Department of Labour go-ahead letter it is seeking will be issued today “at the latest”.

“They’re waiting on somebody to return to the Department who is away travelling,” he said of the Government position. “If it doesn’t happen [today] we’re going to go ahead and change all the locks. It’s ridiculous. We need to get on with it because we need to enter into other arrangements. It should be a liability due from John MacDonald [IVRC’s president] to his employees. It’s ridiculous. The ball is in their court.”

Daniel Baker, an LRA-OBB representative, also confirmed that the Old Bahama Bay owner is waiting on the Department of Labour’s go-ahead. “We’re in a holding pattern,” he told this newspaper. “Everybody wishes for us to continue. We’ve had many folks reach out to us, in particular, condo owners and staff representatives in Grand Bahama.

“They understand what we’re doing because we’re doing the right thing, and doing the right thing by the employees. We are waiting on the Department of Labour to come through and issue the opinion which they recently indicated to us, and we can keep going. Hopefully we’ll be able to take the next step.

“We feel very confident that a lot of the condo owners will be ready to join with us and partner with us on the [rental] programme. We’ve heard informally that the letter they promised will be to us no later than tomorrow [today]. We want to get it right and be in accord with them,” Mr Baker continued.

“We want to communicate and reassure the employees they are covered and protected. We will continue to wait and be patient for the implementation of our plans. As soon as he [Mr MacDonald] fulfills his obligations and terminates the staff, and pays them, they’ll become [our] employees. It’s all intended to make sure they are protected.

“I think we’re very close, and the message were getting informally [from the Department of Labour] is that nothing has changed with their position, they fully agree with our plan and the implementation of it.” Mr MacDonald, though, yesterday told Tribune Business that IVRC remains in management control at Old Bahama Bay with the resort’s operations “still status quo; everything is quiet”.

However, he accused LRA-OBB of “calling the Labour Board on us. The Labour Board came down on Tuesday and found everything is in order. That’s going to backfire on them. On March 5, myself and five other Board members had a call with Anthony Carll, Daniel Baker and Don Churchill telling us what they were going to do on March 28 and how they were going to do it.

“It was a very candid call until I asked them under what authority... do you have the permits, do you have your licences?” Mr MacDonald said LRA-OBB and Mr Scott had refused to produce the permits showing they had government approval to take over Old Bahama Bay’s management, adding that Mrs Woods-Hanna’s March 22 letter made clear they did not possess them.

“How could they then attempt what they were trying to attempt on the 28th?” he asked. “They continued, even though they had a letter in their hands six days before telling them not to do it. They were defiant against the Government, and tried to do it anyway. I would not want to be defiant of the Government like that. 

“I cannot see how they can tell the Government this would be in the best interests of the staff and property but, at the same time, not listen to it. They’ve certainly not made themselves look good in the eyes of the employees. It’s a shame, because as a whole the Bahamas gets hurt touristically and the staff get nervous.

“Our staff have been able to pay their bills, have a roof over their heads, and clothe their children for the last 12 years because we stepped up. People don’t forget stuff like that.”