• Union: Up to 45% of hotel staff still home

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce’s president has warned that the furlough period’s end must be “well thought-out” to avoid inflicting a “double whammy” on workers and businesses.

Greg Laroda told Tribune Business the Chamber and its members have begun internal discussions on potential alternatives to alleviate “hardship” for both employer and employee, after the Government last week signalled that the COVID-19 emergency orders will end on November 12 and not be renewed.

This will trigger, some 30 days later, an end to the furlough period for workers sent home by their employers due to COVID-19. The Employment Act provision, requiring employers to either recall or pay termination packages to workers some 90 days (13 weeks) after they have been sent home, will thus take effect once again on December 13.

The furlough period was always intended to end eventually, given that some workers will by have been at home for nearly 21 months due to COVID-19 come mid-December. Its cessation will thus give such employees closure and certainty, knowing that they will now either be recalled or handed termination packages.

However, while many workers will doubtless welcome receiving full severance pay after a long struggle to survive, they may also struggle to find new jobs in a shrunken economy with high unemployment. As for employers, many may struggle to finance the termination packages mandated by law, following the devastation inflicted on revenues, cash flow and profits by COVID-19.

Noting the challenges facing both sides, Mr Laroda told this newspaper: “Businesses will now have to make a call as to what they do, and if that means letting people go they will have to come up with termination packages, which a lot of them do not have the funds for.

“Small businesses and a lot of medium-sized businesses will not be able to come up with the money for termination packages. My concern is that a lot of them will fold up and everybody will be left holding the bag. We need to come up with an alternative to that, I agree.”

And, while workers may welcome being able to finally move on, the GB Chamber president said they, too, faced potential downsides. “They’d be out of a job,” he added. “And that’s to the extent the companies they work for are able to give them termination packages. They may have to wait for those, and that would be a double whammy.

“Certainly this is something that needs to be well thought-out. We don’t want to impose any additional hardship on companies, business, but equally we don’t want workers to feel the burden where they are terminated and can’t receive separation packages. Both sides will be impacted by it.”

Mr Laroda added that it “remains to be seen how the Government is going to handle it”, although Clint Watson, the Prime Minister’s press secretary, last week said the new administration expected companies to follow the law and pay due severance to impacted workers once the furlough period ends.

He added that Mr Davis had reiterated this to “a major employer”, which he did not name, if it had to “move to the next stage” and issue termination packages. Mr Laroda said the GB Chamber had “started to discuss” alternatives to a hard furlough end internally, but had not gone into any details yet.

Once the process was completed, he added that a possible recommendation would be made to the Government on another way to address the matter. “Sometimes you do things with the best of intentions, but you can do some harm in the cause of doing something good, and I hope the Government considers that part of it,” Mr Laroda added.

“Once we have a chance to discuss it more internally, and get an idea of what the Government plans to do, we can make a recommendation as to how we think it can be addressed.” Among the industries most likely to be impacted is the hotel and tourism sector, where its union president estimated that between 35 percent to 45 percent of workers remain on furlough.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union’s (BHCAWU) president, told Tribune Business he was “hoping for the best” when it came to the furlough period’s end - especially given the timing just before the Christmas holiday period, and start of the industry’s traditional peak winter season.

“What it means is that the employer then has to make a decision on whether to bring persons still on furlough back to work or give them severance packages,” he added. “There are some indications that things are turning around a little bit, and that may mean less persons will be affected.

“The thing was to get past September, October and the first part of November. We will be starting to ramp up for Christmas, which will pretty much take us into the busy season for the hotel industry. It may offset it or reduce the numbers. It’s not going to eliminate it [terminations].

“It looks like there are 35 percent on the low end, and 45 percent on the high end, still out on furlough. It’s still a significant amount, and we’re trying our best to get those persons in. We’re trying to ascertain the exact numbers now.”

Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, previously told this newspaper the resort industry was on pace to recover 85 percent of its pre-COVID volumes by 2021 year-end, and that it expected to be back to pre-pandemic business levels during the peak winter 2022 season.

Mr Woods, meanwhile, added that the hotel union was due to meet Ministry of Tourism officials this week for a briefing on arrivals and bookings forecasts, adding: “We hope it translates into stopover room nights, which will give employees an opportunity to get back to work and be fully engaged. We’re just hoping for the best.”

While terminated workers will be entitled to a severance package, Mr Woods argued that they would be “back to square one” and having to compete for jobs amid mass unemployment and multiple persons vying for the same job.

“Most persons are asking for closure so that they know either way what is happening to them,” Mr Woods said. He voiced optimism that the Davis administration would enforce the law to ensure terminated workers received their full severance package upfront, adding that the former government had “allowed some things” it should not.

The union chief said it was urging the hotels to select furloughed workers who were close to retirement or wanted to leave for termination packages, rather than younger staff who wanted to stay.