By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

AML Foods yesterday told Tribune Business it had “stopped counting” after receiving over 2,000 applications for the 90 jobs that will be created when its Solomon’s Fresh Market store at Harbour Bay opens before Christmas, the situation highlighting why proposed Employment Act reforms should be shelved.

Lamenting that many applicants lacked the basic literacy/numeracy skills required, Gavin Watchorn, the BISX-listed retail group’s president/chief executive, said the planned changes would further depress uncompetitive national productivity levels and increase the official 15.9 per cent unemployment rate.

The volume of resumes received means there are more than 22 applicants for every potential job at the second Solomon’s Fresh Market, highlighting again the Bahamas’ high unemployment rate and the need to incentivise job creation.

However, Mr Watchorn told Tribune Business that all other Bahamian employers he had spoken to informed him that, if the proposed Employment Act reforms became law as is, they would either give no salary or benefit increase, or reduce payroll costs - the latter meaning employees would be laid-off.

Detailing the demand for jobs at the latest Solomon’s Fresh Market, some three-four months before the store is due to open, Mr Watchorn said: “We’ve actually received 2,000 resumes for job applications for Harbour Bay, which has astonished us. We actually stopped counting after 2,000.”

However, the AML Foods chief said many applicants lacked the basic literacy and numeracy skills all employers required, exposing again the problems caused by the public high school system’s output.

“Unfortunately, the skill sets we are seeing is indicative of the education system,” Mr Watchorn told Tribune Business. “That is the exact challenge we are seeing. The basic skills are dismally lacking on quite a lot of the resumes we are receiving.”

This further adds to the case against proceeding with the Government’s proposed Employment Act reforms, which include a mandatory one-hour lunch break in the definition of the ‘40-hour work week’.

Other reforms causing concern are the proposed ‘12 consecutive hours of rest’ and ‘fixed day off’ requirements, which impact companies that operate 24/7 and/or use shift work, plus the notion of paying hourly paid staff when they were not working on public holidays.

Questioning why these proposals were being brought forward now, with the overall economy and many Bahamian businesses struggling, Mr Watchorn said they would merely increase business costs, further reduce productivity and increase unemployment.

“It’s not law yet, but the reality is it would introduce a cost on businesses when they can least afford it,” the AML Foods chief executive told Tribune Business.

“It essentially equates to a 12 per cent increase for our staff. We’re already paying our staff for public holidays whether they’re working or not, and pay double time if they worked it, so that’s not a new cost for us.

“But taking a 40-hour work week and turning it into 35 hours does nothing for productivity, and the problem with our nation is that we do not have the productivity we need to match a lot of the countries we’re competing against. We don’t have the productivity of other nations.”

Mr Watchorn added: “This [the Employment Act reform proposals] makes us less efficient and it’s going to have to be paid for through reduced employment levels.

“Employers who I’ve talked to are not going to increase their payroll costs because of this. So they’re taking the approach of giving no pay increases, no benefits increases for some time, or reducing headcount so that payroll stays the same.....

“Everyone’s wondering why they’ve brought it in this time. It will lead to increased unemployment, because employers cannot afford this. If it becomes law we will see less employment, because people cannot afford the increase in employment costs.”