By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A union leader last night warned that Sandals' delaying the re-opening of its flagship Cable Beach property until November 1 will have "a devastating effect" on staff who will be "unable to survive another five months".

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business he was still trying to discover why Sandals Royal Bahamian will remain closed until that date after only being informed of the situation yesterday.

Mr Ferguson, who acts as the attorney for the Bahamas Hotel, Maintenance and Allied Workers Union, which is the bargaining agent for the resort's line staff, said the consequences of waiting four months beyond the Bahamian tourism industry's much-trumpeted July 1 re-opening would be "terrible, terrible" for a Sandals Royal Bahamian workforce that is several hundred strong.

Research by this newspaper confirmed that the resort's re-opening date is listed as November 1 on Sandals Resorts International's website. A press release sent out by the resort chain, which is controlled by Gordon "Butch" Stewart and his family, also carried the same date, but this newspaper was unable to reach executives before press time to explain the delayed Royal Bahamian re-opening.

While several of its other Caribbean properties are not scheduled to re-open until later in the year, a Sandals resort in Antigua has already opened on June 4, and its second Bahamian property - Sandals Emerald Bay in Exuma - is due to come back online on July 2 in line with the sector's general re-opening plan.

"I have made some inquiries, but quite frankly we have not been able to ascertain the exact reasons," Mr Ferguson told Tribune Business of Sandals Royal Bahamian's November 1 re-opening. "It's terrible, terrible. It takes them down to a level of survival.

"That's going to have a devastating effect on the whole workforce because there is no way they will be able to survive for the next four to five months. The income just isn't there. The ones I have spoken to are having great difficulty paying their rent, supplying food for their families, making car payments and meeting just normal medical expenses by purchasing pharmaceutical products."

The depth and length of the economic fall-out produced by the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to leave many families and businesses, as well as the wider economy, deeply scarred. "This is really nothing anyone expected, but if there is a time for all Bahamians to work together in the interests of us all it's now," Mr Ferguson added.

"It's really having a serious effect on a number of people. A lady called me and suggested they have to do what they have to do. I don't want to say what it is they have to do; what they have to do to feed their family. It's not something I would suggest but that shows how dire the situation is."

The TUC chief said Sandals staff were also concerned about how to deal with guests, and uncertainties over whether they may be carrying the COVID-19 virus. "How they handle that situation is important to those who have contacted me wanting to find out what the deal is," he added.

"The concern that they have expressed to me, at least the ones that have called me, is that they have a fear as to how to deal with the uncertainty; whether or not the guests they're dealing with have the virus. How do you deal with it, not knowing if they have it or not. That seems to be the big concern.

"My reaction to them is that the labour movement, the entire labour movement, will work assiduously to ensure some sort of national training programme is put in place."

Mr Ferguson also reiterated his long-standing call for The Bahamas to mandate that all employers, workers and the Government contribute to the creation of an emergency fund that would ensure future COVID-19 type events will not "be so severe and damaging to the economy".

"The Government's revenues can only do so much," the TUC chief added. "We need to anticipate and make provisions for this kind of situation. I am suggesting we introduce a national emergency fund or redundancy fund so that when this happens again we will be in a better position to deal with it. It's very damaging and very distressing.

"We need to plan and don't put everything into tourism. We need to diversify our economy to do that, and look at other areas to stimulate to help government and respond ourselves. We all have a role to play."

Sandals Royal Bahamian's November 1 re-opening date shows that the tourism restart will not be as simple as merely flicking a switch. Not all resorts will open immediately, and many will do so in phases, only recalling a percentage of staff at a time.

The British Colonial Hilton's decision to permanently axe 15 percent of its staff also shows that resorts may elect to do more with less, and cut costs and workforce numbers in line with the new operating and financial realities they face. There may even be properties themselves that elect not to re-ope.

Dionisio D'Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, last night agreed that Sandals Royal Bahamian's November 1 date was "very concerning", but suggested it had been chosen based on the demand the resort chain is seeing and whether this will be sufficient to cover its costs and get to a "break even" position during the traditionally slower summer months.

Sandals may also use this time to ready the property and train staff in the new COVID-19 protocols, and Mr D'Aguilar said: "Obviously they've got their ear to the ground and they're going to make that decision based on the level of demand.

"Sandals has a very robust reservations system and marketing programme so they can ascertain what their level of demand is at the push of a button. If they see the level of demand makes it not worthwhile to re-open, they're going to delay. Every business is going to assess whether they need to re-open at this level of demand, and everyone agrees that the level of demand is not what it was.

"The last pandemic was 100 years ago. There's no real game plan here. We have to see how it goes and use market intelligence and advanced booking systems to determine if we have a sufficient level of demand to operate."