By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Prime Minister Perry Christie yesterday blasted last week’s terminations of 190 Crystal Palace workers as “unfair”, and said the Government needed to give hotel staff greater protection in Heads of Agreements negotiated with foreign developers.

Mr Christie, speaking during a Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) seminar, effectively confirmed that the lay-offs had been part of Baha Mar’s efforts to restructure its workforce prior to the $3.5 billion project’s opening.

He also indicated that the former Crystal Palace workers had been the victims of Baha Mar’s delayed opening. The project had originally been scheduled to open in December 2014, and the developer had anticipated the several hundred persons graduating from its training programmes this month would go straight into working at the new hotels.

With the delay until late Spring 2015 (Mr Christie said March), this will not happen. As a result, Baha Mar would have been left with a bloated workforce and wage bill, and no income to support it, without the 190 redundancies.

The Prime Minister also hinted strongly that the situation had placed the Government between the proverbial ‘rock and a hard place’, not wanting to offend a developer it has pinned its hopes for economic revival on, but also upset about the lay-offs and the way those affected have been treated.

And, with the dispute over how much the Government should pay for the re-routed West Bay Street still bubbling, it is likely that Friday’s lay-offs further chilled relations with Baha Mar.

Mr Christie said it was a “teachable moment” for the country, adding that the Government must negotiate agreements that provide stronger protection for workers in the hotel industry.

He said:  “The company anticipated that they would be opening in December, and they were carrying a lot of people on the payroll; walking around, probably making minimum wages, but nevertheless on their payroll.

“After this month they are graduating  several hundred people who are going on their payroll. That is what they argue. For us the great difficulty is that is so unfair when people, having given the best of their services, and  are still capable of giving service, are dismissed.

“We know how difficult it is, based on past experiences, for people of a certain age to be able to get a job back in the industry.  Government must certainly know that they are dealing with a decision that has a permanent impact on people. We must  be as strong  as we can in dealing with this.”

This effectively confirms what Tribune Business reported on Monday, namely that the lay-offs were part of a workforce restructuring that promotes younger, tech savvy and service-oriented persons who Baha Mar can train from the ground up, and inculcate in its culture and that of its resort brands.

At the same time, it sheds an older, unionised workforce that is more ‘set in its ways’.

Mr Christie added yesterday: “The challenge I have found is that when we have these agreements, and we are arguing that it does not validate that kind of decision, the difficulty is what do you do.

“There are incentives you provide, but the difficulty in rolling back incentives is that you hurt the development and the people. This is a real teachable moment for the country and I would like for us to do our very best to help the persons that are affected.

“That’s what we are in the process of doing. The Ministry of Labour met with representatives of Baha Mar and the Attorney General, and we will continue with that. We have to be able to learn from this process and put better and stronger protections in place for people in this industry,” he said.

“The industry  is the lifeline to the country and we have to have a balanced approach between the rights of the employer and, most certainly, the rights of  the employee. I think that we must  put in the agreements the necessary protection for workers, and that that provision should be enforceable in a strong way.”

Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of government and external affairs, confirmed the developer met with the Government yesterday.

He said more meetings were scheduled, but refused to provide details. Hotel union representatives said they were waiting for the Government to act.

Mr Christie, meanwhile, said he hoped negotiations between the Government and  Baha Mar had not impacted its recent decision to lay-off employees.  

“There is a real issue relative to the costs of the roads, a real issue relative other costs that the Government has incurred for road building,” he said.

“I’m hoping that all the issues we have with Baha Mar, that we work through those issues. As they move to a what looks like a March opening, we have to have in place an agreement and not have in the background any issues that separate us from the smooth functioning of Baha Mar because the investor has made an incredible investment.

“We, as the Government, will have to provide maximum support to ensure that this property works and becomes  a sustainable source  of employment.”

Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis last month told Tribune Business that the  Government remains in negotiations with Baha Mar to resolve its share of the re-routed West Bay Street costs, having paid $28 million thus far.

Under the previous Ingraham administration, the Government agreed it would pay $48.1 million towards roadworks that were expected to cost around $90 million in total. It was also stipulated that the Government would pay 50 per cent of the cost if the work ended up costing less than $70 million.

Baha Mar officials say the road re-routing cost $118 million, but the Government argued it was worth only $58 million. It had agreed to reimburse Baha Mar for its portion once the casino tower hit the 100-foot mark, which occurred last February.