By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

TRADE union executives representing City Markets line-staff said yesterday that the food store chain's former employees were all entitled to their severance packages having been "effectively terminated", telling Tribune Business that legal action may be taken.

Robert Farquharson, general secretary of the National Congress of Trade Unions, the umbrella union for the Bahamas Commercial Stores, Supermarketd & Warehouse Workers Union (BCSSWWU), which represents City Markets line-staff, told Tribune Business that recent comments by City Markets' principal regarding the severance package issue were "inconsistent" with the Employment Act as well as the terms and conditions of the industrial agreement.

Mr Farquharson said there was a meeting scheduled yesterday for an update regarding the sale of the struggling supermarket chain to Super Value, and compensation packages for its former employees.

Mr Farquharson told Tribune Business: "We have been advised by the representative of City Markets that he has had no new instructions, and as a result he did not attend the meeting. We have reviewed the comments attributed to Mr Finlayson in the newspapers. Mr Finlayson's statements are inconsistent with the Employment Act as well as the terms and conditions of employment within the industrial agreement.

"The matter is now going to be addressed by the NCTU. It's obvious that Mr Finlayson is not prepared to abide by the statute laws of this country, and as a result we may have to take some action, including but not limited to the Supreme Court."

Mr Finlayson told Tribune Business in an interview on Wednesday that the "primary" issue in negotiating the sale of the supermarket chain was saving jobs, although the situation was different in Freeport, where severance payments would have to be made.

Mr Finlayson, who heads his family's Trans-Island Traders investment vehicle, which holds a 78 per cent stake in Bahamas Supermarkets, City Markets' operating parent, told Tribune Business that former City Markets employees taken on by Super Value president and owner, Rupert Roberts, would not receive compensation packages.

But Mr Farquharson told Tribune Business: "City Markets has effectively terminated all of its employees. Once an employee has been terminated, under the Employment Act those employees are entitled to receive severance packages.

"Those severance packages have absolutely nothing to do with their new employment at Super Value. If Mr Roberts chooses to hire employees from City Markets in his company, then they have to be hired under new terms and conditions of employment."

Mr Farquharson added: "If Mr Roberts wants to assume all of the liabilities of City Markets, and all of the employees of City Markets, then that comes with some different issues. For instance, all of the employees are represented by the BCSS&WWU." Super Value's employees are not unionised.

Whanslaw Turnquest, City Markets' chief inventory control officer, told Tribune Business: "We are trying to get the pension fund disolved. Our lawyers are working on that now. All of the equipment in the Cable Beach store is owned by the pension fund, there's no doubt about that."