By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

DR Philip McPhee, pastor of Mount Calvary Baptist Church, Dr Philip McPhee yesterday called for web shop bosses to “act in good faith” and find “constructive ways” to keep their workers employed.

His comments referred to Island Luck CEO Sebas Bastian’s termination of 47 employees last month because their positions were not accounted for in the government’s new Gaming Act.

Dr McPhee, an avid supporter of the job opportunities the web shop industry provides for Bahamians, yesterday said if web shop owners were “smart enough” to beat the “system of the government of the Bahamas during the last 10-15 years,” they should be able to keep workers employed.

Dr McPhee also said he intends to keep the government and web shop bosses’ feet to the fire regarding the Christie administration’s allocation of funds received from web shop taxation.

“I don’t think I was hearing right when number houses let go of workers because they were not covered in the (Gaming) Act,” Dr McPhee said. “This cannot be the case. It cannot be that those who we fought for, those who acted outside of the law, would now seek to use the law to justify their letting go of workers, especially weeks before Christmas.”

Dr McPhee was a vocal supporter of the web shop industry before the January 2013 gaming referendum and urged people to vote for the sector’s regulation.

Many supporters of the industry and web shop owners said that regulation would protect the jobs of workers. In September, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said web shop regulation would create “3,000 jobs”.

“I call on those bosses to find the means to cover or place those workers in a place where they can be covered,” Dr McPhee said yesterday. “If they claimed they only wanted to do good and hence found a way to get around the law, then I call on that same goodness to keep those persons employed. Like the banks, these number houses for years have benefited from the goodwill of the Bahamian people. Now it’s time they act in good faith to a people who are hurting.”

A day after the Gaming Bill came into effect on November 24, Mr Bastian revealed that 47 people were fired from Island Luck because their positions were not covered by the legislation.

That same week, Wayne Munroe, lawyer for Island Luck, said he would be surprised if more than half of the web shops in operation remained in business by this month.

Mr Munroe said compliance costs were expected to be too hefty for many web shops to bear, and, in a previous interview with Tribune Business, added that four web shop operators left the industry well before the Gaming Bill went to Parliament.

However, the head of the country’s oldest web shop operation, Craig Flowers, subsequently said his company, FML, had no plans to lay off workers because of the implementation of the new law. Rather, he said, his company was looking to hire people and expand, adding that some of those people would “probably” be those that were fired by Mr Bastian. However, it has not been confirmed whether Mr Flowers has hired any of those individuals.

Yesterday Dr McPhee asked web shop owners to “reconsider” any past and pending terminations, calling such actions a “very disastrous position to put any person in at this time.”

He also said he would work to ensure that the funds received from web shop taxation are managed by the government for a “tangible manifestation of communal good”.

“Early in the conversations, the taxing of number houses were to ensure funding for cultural, educational and other social programmes,” he said. “I have yet to hear of the government’s commitment to ensure some funding that found its way into various faith initiatives.

“Especially given the fact that the coming Value Added Tax (VAT) will no doubt initially bring added burden to many amongst us. I am hopeful that the regulating of number houses and the promised proceeds from VAT will be specifically set aside so that there remains a social safety net for those least able to get the very basics of life.”

Last week, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe said 10 web shops had collectively paid $5 million tax arrears in time to remain open during the industry’s transitional period, thus making them eligible for operation licences.

Web shops that did not pay their tax arrears by December 1 for the period July 1 to November 24, 2014, would be unable to obtain licences, which are expected to be issued by May 2015.

Additionally, operators had until yesterday to lodge sworn affidavits with the Gaming Board secretary, noting whether they would operate during the transitional period.

The closing date for submitting applications for gaming house operator and gaming house premises licences will be February 20, 2015. Web shops that are not granted licences to operate would have seven days to shut down once notices of closure are released.

Prime Minister Perry Christie said in September that the government stood to collect $25 million in penalties, back business licence fees and application fees payable during the transition period.