Thursday, December 31, 2020
By KHRISNA RUSSELL
Tribune Chief Reporter
krussell@tribunemedia.net
THE hotel union’s president has accused Atlantis of trying to financially “break the backs” of employees after it decided to unilaterally change how gratuities are paid.
Darrin Woods, Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union president, told The Tribune yesterday that food and beverage department workers were “up in arms” over the mega resort’s decision to pay “extra” gratuity bi-weekly, instead of at the end of every shift.
The change also means that these gratuities are subject to taxes, Mr Woods said.
When contacted, an Atlantis spokesperson said the resort “is actively in discussions with our team members to amicably address the matter.”
The Tribune understands the resort has on two occasions sent communication to the union that there were plans to handle gratuity differently.
Mr Woods admitted that the hotel’s position was made known, but he said it was objected to as neither the workers nor the union agreed.
“They are unilaterally making some changes over there to the food and beverage area where the persons are no longer able to get their extra gratuity at the end of the night,” the union chief said in an interview.
“The employees are up in arms about this because if you know the history of gratuity, it is for service rendered and people always say if you give good service people will pay additional sums of money,” Mr Woods said.
“So, here now you have persons because they’ve given good service, they are given extra gratuity and now management has decided that instead of them being able to receive these monies they now have to wait two weeks in order to get it because again they’ve unilaterally changed their terms and conditions to every two weeks.
“The extra gratuity was always used as a bridge that they could buy this or that or buy food, put gas in their cars and do things for their children. Now they have to wait a whole two weeks before they can get it and now the gratuity is subject to whatever tax.
“The employees are up in arms because their thing is that the employer does not care about their well-being and the way they are able to continue to have some form of peace at night.”
While both the workers and union object to the change, Mr Woods said this did not mean they were ungrateful for their jobs after not working for months due to COVID-19.
“What is amazing is it seems that because they were offered a job, they ought to be grateful to work because they have been without work for a long time. They are happy and grateful to be back to work, but people also want to work with comfort and a peace of mind,” he said.
Asked whether the union was left in the dark over the move, Mr Woods said: “They sent us a communication that this is what they were going to do. We said this cannot be done because a part of gratuity and the distribution of it has to be agreed with the union and the employee and the union does not agree and the employee does not agree.
“They say this is industry standard but there is nowhere in the industry this is being done. This is a company policy.
“We see it as a way to try and break the backs of workers by holding them back financially.”
The resort welcomed its workers back on the job earlier this month after closing its doors in March due to a decline in guests as a result of travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comments
JokeyJack says...
The article claims that the Tribune contacted an "Atlantis spokesman". If he is indeed a spokesman, how come he doesn't have a name?
This is simply another kick in the teeth to Bahamians while they are down on their knees. The younger generation (those under 50) have fought back against these injustices by reducing the number of children they have, so that there are not so many slaves available to the massa and thus wages can be kept high. However, the government has responded by allowing cheap labour from abroad to not only enter the country and work, but also obtain free land (if they have a work permit) and still obtain free land (and turn a blind eye) if they do not.
So either your children agree to work for peanuts or the government will bring in slaves from worse off plantations who think that our plantation is a paradise. The Bahamas is known the world over as a paradise - what a joke.
Wonder why the spokesman chose to give no reason for this change, neither did the Tribune ask the union guy what the letter said regarding the need for the change? What would stop the hotel (or any hotel) from just saying that gratuities need to split 50/50 with the hotel in order to cover the costs of Covid? I mean why can't they just do anything they feel like? In response Bahamians "need to just be grateful to have a job".
Posted 31 December 2020, 9:29 p.m. Suggest removal
ThisIsOurs says...
taking a wild guess... cash flow maybe? the govt did much of the same when they stopped dividend repatriations. Those monies belong to the shareholders but the govt put a longer wait period on them because it needed the US dollars. They did the same with Cash and Go, they didn't call it that, outright denied it, but it's the exact same thing. The only difference might be the financial position of the recipients and what the lost money meant to having food to eat and a place to live.
Posted 1 January 2021, 1:17 a.m. Suggest removal
JohnBrown1834 says...
This is unbelievable. The union is acting like money is being taken away. From a year ago Atlantis told employees that they were switching to bi-monthly payments. They had numerous consultation with various groups of employees especially those in the tipping category. They said it was industry standard. Baha Mar pays bi-monthly also so what's the problem. They showed how much they were loosing in administrative cost by paying weekly. The employees will receive the same money. People just have to learn how to budget. The other issue is that they will have to pay National Insurance of the tips. This is a very small amount. However, when the time comes they will get more benefits. That would be a type of savings for them. However, Bahamians don't like to pay taxes, no matter how much or what benefits. We need a mindset shift.
Posted 1 January 2021, 2:08 a.m. Suggest removal
ThisIsOurs says...
I get both sides of the argument. Someone who is only making 50 a week probably can't wait 2 weeks. how will they pay for gas, bus fare, food, laundry services? Budgets are for persons with disposable incomes (yeah I know). What tgese people need is a way to move to a higher income, that can only come with education... (or a fairy godfather). But consolidating payouts is more efficient for the hotel.
Posted 1 January 2021, 5:10 a.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
A failure to have taken full advantage during the remaining hours year 2020 to dispel the confrontational image of a Comrade Union Boss. Em's tone comes across as being ungrateful for any number of workers to have **returned back on the Paradise Island resort's payroll.** Needless to say, if the purpose of the snapshot of emself was to be grabbing the attention of resort owners - **for all wrong reasons** - mission accomplished. **Shakehead** a quick once for upyeahvote, a slow twice for not?
Posted 1 January 2021, 2:23 p.m. Suggest removal
DWW says...
"Compulsory Gratuity"
Posted 4 January 2021, 3:11 p.m. Suggest removal
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