TOURISM is the lifeblood of the Bahamian economy. We know it, successive governments know it, and the investors who come to our shores certainly know it. For generations, The Bahamas has welcomed investment in our tourism industry because we understand what it can mean: jobs, economic activity, opportunities for Bahamian businesses, and a stronger national economy. And we should continue to welcome that investment.
But there is another side to the bargain that deserves greater attention.
When a major hotel or resort development comes to The Bahamas, the investor rarely comes alone. The Bahamian people come to the table as partners, whether we describe ourselves that way or not. The government may provide land or facilitate access to it. It may grant customs exemptions, tax concessions, or access to promotion board incentives.
After all, it is Bahamians who work in a collaborative spirit as housekeepers to prepare the rooms and as chefs to prepare visitors’ meals. It is Bahamian engineers and technicians who keep properties running, and Bahamian managers who solve problems. Let us not forget it is Bahamian entertainers who give our tourism product its character. This includes taxi drivers, contractors, and local businesses that provide tours and other services.
That said, we must give credit where credit is due. Baha Mar, for example, recognizes that Bahamians provide something else: the glue that holds the whole enterprise together. The resort salutes the manpower that provides the intellect, resourcefulness, and hospitality that has made the property and this country one of the world’s most recognized tourism destinations.
Recently, a number of employees from the Four Seasons Ocean Club have approached this institution claiming they are not being paid while the property closes for a third consecutive year for maintenance or renovations. The employees further claim that while they are being forced to take vacation during that time or apply for National Insurance benefits, expatriate managers will still receive their full salaries.
Setting aside the definition of a full-time worker as being someone employed for 52 weeks a year, we find it surprising that any investor, let alone a world-renowned brand, would contravene the historic anti-discrimination legislation tabled by the late crusading publisher of The Tribune, Sir Etienne Dupuch.
Clearly a worker’s mortgage does not enter the low season. Neither do electricity bills, grocery bills, school fees, or the cost of putting fuel in a car. The same employee who is indispensable to billionaire owners when hotel occupancy is high cannot suddenly become our problem when occupancy falls. Can you imagine if a Bahamian business were to force a citizen to use their vacation or seek payments from National Insurance for seven weeks each year?
That does not necessarily mean prohibiting furloughs or forcing hotels to carry unsustainable payrolls. Hotels are businesses, not charities. No reasonable person expects an employer to maintain staffing when there is simply no work to be done. However, it is worth examining how those very same properties, which have benefited from concessions to the tune of some $90 million a year, deal with Bahamian employment during periods of lower demand. Would it make sense for future heads of agreement and major tourism concessions to contain enforceable provisions? Or a requirement that products and services (water, tiles, produce, etc.) must first be offered to local businesses?
Alternatively, should properties receiving significant concessions be required to develop worker-retention plans to be used during low seasons for paid training, certification, and professional development, rather than simply sending employees home without sufficient income to make ends meet?
In other words, if the public is sharing in the investment, it is not unreasonable to ask investors to accept a greater responsibility for providing stability for workers.
NEW MINISTER OF TOURISM
For years, we have measured the success of tourism by visitor arrivals, hotel occupancy, room rates, and the billions invested in new developments.
But there ought to be another measurement: What has all of this meant for the Bahamian family?
A tourism industry can post record numbers while the people working inside it remain financially insecure. Those two realities cannot exist at the same time and space, especially in a brave new world the public voted for.
Of course, we need investment. We need those businesses to be profitable and willing to expand, renovate, and employ more Bahamians. But partnership cannot mean that the public shares the risk while the private investor alone determines how the rewards are distributed. The Bahamian people bring too much to the table for that. Our land has value. Our concessions have value. Our infrastructure has value.
We hope Minister Hanna-Martin, known for her strong nationalistic views, will take a hard look at this issue and consider whether protections for Bahamian workers should form part of the bargain when concessions are granted. When times are good, everyone is happy to speak about partnership. The real measure of that partnership comes when times are uncertain.
The Bahamian worker should not be regarded merely as a financial cost to be reduced when the season changes. That worker is part of the investment that made the enterprise possible in the first place.
If we are prepared to protect investment, then we should be equally determined to protect the people whose labor turns that investment into a successful tourism product. That is not anti-business. On the contrary, if progress for Bahamians is what we voted for and were promised, then we must ensure that the progress promised is delivered fairly and evenly to all our citizens.
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