By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The government's top labour official yesterday warned that 2,500 employees are threatened with termination unless the period in which they can receive unemployment benefit is doubled to 26 weeks.

John Pinder, director of labour, told Tribune Business that the government had been approached by 20 companies about extending the current 13-week National Insurance Board (NIB) jobless benefit amid fears that they may otherwise have to pay staff their full severance pay due under the Employment Act.

And, of that 20, Mr Pinder said nine had already warned the Department of Labour they are ready to provide full severance - not just continue with temporary lay-offs - due to recent changes to the Employment Act that stipulate after 12-13 weeks (90 days) companies must provide due statutory/termination pay to employees who may have been sent home.

"There are 20 companies altogether that have come to the Department of Labour looking to lay-off staff," Mr Pinder said. "The companies that are indicating the possibility of termination, about 90 percent of them are in New Providence and the other ones are between Grand Bahama, we have something out of Eleuthera, one company out of Exuma and something out of Bimini.

"Nine of the 20 companies are talking about termination and not just lay-offs. I'm singling out the nine companies that have said to us that they are prepared to give severance pay to their staff, but not all. They have written that some of their staff will be given severance pay, which means they are terminating them.

"The other companies have it in such a way that if this thing does not turn around then they have to revisit it, and that is the reason why they are asking the government to extend this thing from the 12 weeks to some more weeks to give some companies an opportunity to get their economic situation in better shape before they make a determination," Mr Pinder added.

"Most of them are in the hotel and restaurant industry. One or two banks, one or two law firms, one or two construction companies and one or two airlines. My boss told me to release no names, because we want to talk them out of doing it. We are still going to try our best to convince them to proceed otherwise, and that is why we are encouraged by the signs we are seeing made by the Government to get business started again."

"There is about 25,000 people or so that have been laid-off but not scheduled for termination. I would say about 10 percent of that 25,000 is threatened with termination. Most of them [businesses] are saying if they don't get the extension on the 12 weeks, then they may have to consider the termination and total shut down. So they are still hoping that they can get an extension or if the Government opens before that they will be back in business."

Explaining the companies' rationale, Mr Pinder added: "The Employment Act gives an employer 12 weeks to determine whether or not in this case, or in the case of a natural disaster, whether they are going to make the staff redundant or bring them back to work. But after 90 days they have to make a decision to make the staff redundant or bring them back to work.

"Through the National Tripartite Council, which has the representative from the employer's side, recommendation has been made to the Government to extend it and the minster of labour will have the right to determine how long he will extend it for."

Peter Goudie, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation's director responsible for labour relations, said: 'The Chamber has written, and so has the Bahamas Hotel Association, because what we don't want is for people to become redundant. First of all, a lot of companies can't afford to pay the redundancy, especially right now, but also people don't want to lose their jobs because there aren't any other jobs to go to.

"So what we are saying is what you did during Hurricane Dorian, let's do it again. I mean, this is unprecedented and nobody knows when this will be over. Especially in the hotel business, we know the tourists aren't going to be coming right away. This is a tough one.

"The main reason why this is so tough is that nobody knows, I mean nobody knows. We are honestly just asking them for an extension, but we really don't know how long that's going to be. We just asked them to extend it by another 12 or 13 weeks, or whatever the magic number."

Mr Goudie said the Chamber was lobbying heavily for the extension, and "all kinds of businesses" have been asking about it. "It just makes sense considering where we are, as nobody wants to lose their jobs. It is a tough decision and it's going to cost money, but you have to do something," he added.