By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

HOTEL workers will receive “tens of millions of dollars” in extra financial benefits following yesterday’s signing of the industry’s first industrial agreement for more than a decade.

Russell Miller, president of the Bahamas Hotel and Restaurant Employers Association (BHREA), which represented Atlantis, the Ocean Club and the Lyford Cay Club in the negotiations with the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU), said the deal will impact the take home pay of 10,000 resort employees “substantially”.

He added that the increased compensation was the “right thing to do”, even though it will cost the resort industry as workers had not received a raise in 12 years.

Mr Miller said: “Within the industry it benefits almost 10,000 team members comprising Atlantis, of course. The majority are Atlantis but also the other member hotels of Four Seasons Ocean Club, Lyford Cay Club and Town Hotel. It’s in the millions, in the tens of millions. I won’t give you the exact number, but over the course of the life of the agreement, it’s in the tens of millions.

“Some of the changes in the agreement are things that, for the last 11-12 years have not been affected, have not been impacted. So that we’ve come to an agreement, we’ve reached the agreement, it impacts the overall take home performance of our team members substantially.

“And this was, you know, not easy decisions, because we knew it was going to impact the association, particularly, but it was the right thing to do because of the fact that folks had not received increases or not gotten the benefit of an industrial agreement over the last 12 years.”

Mr Miller explained that the industrial agreement was delayed for over a decade due to administration changes and then the COVID pandemic. He added: “There are a number of reasons and, you know, typically at the conclusion of the existing agreement, both sides are to exchange agreements.

“So the union would present their agreement, we would go through it and review it, and then we would come with our counter-proposal. So those just did not happen. So no one’s at fault. It’s just one of those things that just did not materialise. There were changes in administrations and it just didn’t happen.

“I think once the current administration came into office, they were commit- ted and dedicated that they would come up and present a new agreement, which they did, and we countered that and then the negotiations began and went back and forth,” Mr Miller continued.

“It was a delay because of COVID, as you all know, so that was about a year, year-and-a-half delay with no negotiations which prolonged this, and so now we’re at this point where we have an agreement and we’re very pleased. I’m very happy that we have come to this position.”

Darrin Woods, the hotel union president, said the agreement includes an 11 percent increase for all workers as well as a lump sum payout. Tipped workers will receive the increase on top of the minimum wage rise, while non-tipped workers will receive an 11 percent increase on the last negotiated rate.

He said: “We believe that we were able to settle on something that would advance them in terms of their living standards, their base wage movement, certainly emoluments we were able to accomplish.

“Some of the things we were able to get for the membership across the board would have been an 11 percent increase. For the tip category it will be 11 percent on top of the minimum wage, for the non-tip it will be 11 percent on the last negotiated rate. We were able to get lump sum payments for them which are historic.”

Mr Woods said the industrial agreement will be incorporated into employee contracts, avoiding the industry having long delays between deals going forward, and that the transportation provided to members was lost during the negotiations.

He said: “One of the signature improvements that would have been made in this particular agreement is that once the agreement is signed and registered, it then forms part of their individual contracts of employment, and therefore that is historic.

“No longer will the industrial agreements be outstanding for so long that we will begin the negotiation process pretty much early... the industrial agreement actually is incorporated into their individual contracts of employment. And what it does for the industry as a whole, it brings a sense of stability, because for too long we’ve been without an industrial agreement and so we didn’t have anywhere that we could legally go to take our fight.

“One of the things we lost during this negotiation, sadly, is the transportation, what has been a staple in our industry for many, many years. And, of course, with the blessing of the members, they told us to go forward with what was being offered. And the next time around is of course it’s up for further negotiations at this time.”