The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Three former employees of a contractor that provided security services for Delta Airlines in Exuma lost their wrongful dismissal claim because they “voted with their feet” and joined a rival without being terminated.

Rionda Godet, the Industrial Tribunal’s vice-president, in a just-released December 13, 2024, verdict rejected the compensation claims initiated against More Security (Bahamas) by Tatiana Requilda-Tinker, Devante Donovan McPhee and Deon Gibson on the basis that the trio “withdrew their services” without the employer first dismissing them.

She found that the three all took jobs with Strachan’s Aviation, after its principal informed them it had won - and was taking over - the Delta Airlines security contract in Exuma from More Security (Bahamas). This was despite the latter’s principal, a Mr Holmes, telling all his staff to “stand down” and not switch to employment with Strachan’s Aviation.

And Ms Godet said it was “curious” that Mr McPhee, in his evidence, asserted that More Security (Bahamas) had “obtained a contract with Strachan’s Aviation” and was now acting as the latter’s sub-contractor for the provision of security services to Delta Airlines when it had previously performed the same duties by itself.

With More Security (Bahamas) taking no part in the Industrial Tribunal proceedings, Ms Tinker alleged she was made redundant by the firm on July 31, 2019, although this was never officially confirmed to her by Mr Holmes or anyone else in authority.

Asserting that she was given no other work to do, “she said that she had heard from other people working around the airport that Delta Airlines had not renewed their contract” with More Security (Bahamas).

“She said that sometime in June 2019, Jermaine Bannister, the overseer of another security provider, Strachan’s Aviation, had informed her and her colleagues that his company has secured the Delta contract and had made an offer of employment to all of them to continue their same job under him and Strachan’s Aviation when the Delta Airlines contract with More Security expired,” Ms Godet noted.

Ms Tinker alleged that she and fellow staff all tried to contact Mr Holmes to obtain clarity on their jobs and futures, but he “was always avoiding their calls and their only source of information as to what was happening came from Mr Bannister”. They attended interviews and training with Strachan’s Aviation in July 2019, while still working for More Security (Bahamas), and were formally hired by the former in August that year.

However, when Mr Holmes found out about this, he visited Exuma and told all staff to “stand down”, which they interpreted as him not wanting them to join Strachan’s Aviation. Ms Tinker said the latter paid higher wages than More Security (Bahamas), and that she was performing the same duties at Exuma International Airport as before.

Mr McPhee’s tale was similar in that he found out from Delta Airlines staff about the security contract not being renewed with More Security (Bahamas). And, in addition to recalling Mr Holmes telling staff to “stand down”, he also testified that Mr Bannister “made an offer to him and the other staff to continue their same job” with Strachan’s Aviation.

Mr Gibson, meanwhile, a security supervisor, asserted that “because he was ‘young’ and ‘trusting’ he did not consider it strange” that a competing company in the form of Strachan’s Aviation and Mr Bannister - rather than More Security (Bahamas) and Mr Holmes - would call all workers to a mid-July 2019 meeting to make an offer to join his company when they were still employed by a rival.

Mr Gibson “found out that from March 2019 that Mr Holmes was to renegotiate the Delta contract but failed to do so as well as he failed to inform his staff that he no longer possessed it. He also confirmed that training occurred while he was still employed with More Security (Bahamas) and, at that time, “Delta had suspended all flights and they were working like three or four-day work weeks”.

Tackling the trio’s claim for unpaid notice, redundancy and vacation pay, Ms Godet said all three had agreed that Mr Holmes’ call for them to “stand down” meant not to accept a job with Strachan’s Aviation, even though the latter was the only entity informing them of their fate.

“The fact that the applicants were unaware that the respondent company [More Security Bahamas] had, in fact, secured the Delta contract as a sub-contractor to the same company that had curiously poached and procured their services led to their disadvantage if one may call it that,” Ms Godet ruled.

“On one hand they all averred to receiving higher wages, and this was sufficient a motivation for them to leave the presumed ‘uncertain’ for the certain but there, in the judgment of the Tribunal, was no hint of the respondent’s intent to release his staff one way or another.”

As a result, Ms Godet found there was no evidence to suggest that the trio had been terminated. While acknowledging that Mr Holmes and More Security (Bahamas) should have done a “better job” communicating with staff, she determined that the three had switched employers because “they needed to keep their head above water”.

And, as a result, they were never dismissed because they “chose their own path” based on what they were told by Mr Bannister and withdrew their services from Strachan’s Aviation. “The respondent made no determination as to the diminishing of his workforce. That decision was made for him when his employees ‘voted with their feet’ based on information coming from other forces,” Ms Godet ruled.