By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) Nicole Martin has urged the government to make legislative changes to protect workers and their tenure of employment describing the recent move by Sandals to abruptly make some 600 workers at Royal Bahamian resort redundant “disgraceful” and a “slap in the face” to workers across the country.

“What Sandals did is disgraceful. It is a slap in the face of the workers across this country. Workers should be protected against this kind of move whether the workers have a union or not. I believe that when they reopen they should not be permitted to hire new people. The Government should insist on that. We have to have consistency and respect for tenure. If an employee goes to work and creates a breach they can be fired but if you have done nothing and then tell me the place has to close down and make you redundant that certainly is not right. There is a layoff period, ten weeks, where you can decide to layoff workers while you decide on the next step,” Ms Martin told Tribune Business.

Martin said that the Sandals situation was similar to one the BHCAWU faced last year when Harbour Island’s Pink Sands Resort decided to terminate roughly 80 employees as it shut down for renovations.

“They sought to bust the union, they had no desire of working with the union. They announced a scheduled closure, made everyone redundant, and said they would rehire some of the persons but that never happened. They reopened with new employees. Even though recognition is in place with the property, those new employees were very reluctant to sign up with the union. That actually caused us to approach the Government to make some changes legislatively to protect workers and their tenure of employment. Everything seems to be working very slowly but the larger issue is that there is no respect for Bahamian workers. Employers can come in and do as they feel like,” said Ms Martin.

She added: “I know that there is a Tripartite Council in place but in my opinion it is not helpful because it has employers, the union and the Government. When you look at the problems, one of the three of those pillars is causing the problem. Most of the time, it is the employers finding loopholes in the law and exploiting it to the point of exploitation of the workers. Any legislative change we need has to go through that Council. The council has to agree before it moves on to the House of Assembly for consideration and passage. I believe the Government should enact emergency legislation to stop this from happening.”