Labour Department in ‘crisis mode’ after fire

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Labour investigators plan to this week visit a private cruise island and another “major” destination to probe worker complaints even though a recent fire has left the Department “in crisis mode”.

Howard Thompson, the Government’s labour director, yesterday told Tribune Business that investigating multiple concerns voiced by staff at Norwegian Cruise Line’s (NCL) Great Stirrup Cay remains “a top priority” for the Department of Labour as it awaits a decision on a replacement location following the blaze that devastated its new offices at Old Trail Road.

Revealing that the visits to the Berry Islands cruise destination and other location, which he declined to name, will be a joint operation with the Immigration Department, he voiced concern that some employers outside New Providence may have become “lackadaisical” when it came to complying with Bahamian labour laws because of the distance between themselves and Nassau.

As for the fire fall-out, Mr Thompson said the Department of Labour needs to find a new temporary home as it has to vacate both its Rosetta Street and Robinson Road locations within the next two weeks. He explained that the Department had already given up its leases on these properties in anticipation of being able to move to now-fire ravaged Old Trail Road, and new tenants are already waiting to move in.

Two temporary locations have now been identified, and Mr Thompson said the Department should hear from Pia Glover-Rolle, minister of labour and the public service, and her permanent secretary by Friday this week as to which of the two has been selected. And, to prevent any future threat to its records and data, he told this newspaper that the Department is moving swiftly to digitise all paperwork and store it in the cloud.

Tribune Business revealed earlier this month how employees at NCL’s Great Stirrup Cay private cruise port were claiming they are being “unfairly treated” and not paid in accordance with Bahamian labour laws. In particular, they allege that they are working 70-hour work weeks, in excess of the Employment Act’s 40-hour work week, without being paid overtime or receiving holiday or vacation pay.

Mr Thompson, in a previous interview with Tribune Business, had indicated he and Department of Labour investigators planned to visit the island either in the week before or after the Easter holiday weekend. However, besides the holiday impacting this schedule, the Department also faced the additional setback of dealing with the fire’s consequences which delayed its plans further.

“Great Stirrup Cay, that is a top priority,” the labour director said yesterday. However, he revealed that “very troublesome” complaints about labour matters at another destination outside Nassau meant that investigators will have to visit there first.

“One major one came in ahead of us. I won’t let that out of the bag,” Mr Thompson said, explaining that he did not want to lose the element of surprise. “We’re coming for them this week, so we will make sure we use the police plans to get there.

“A lot of employers have properties on these island destinations, and some now seem to be assuming they are out of arm’s length from the authorities and are being a bit lackadaisical over treating people in accordance with the labour laws. I hope that’s not their thinking but that’s what it seems to be.”

Mr Thompson said this week’s visits will be a “joint exercise” conducted with the Immigration Department, which has the ability to deal with breaches involving foreign and expatriate labour because it is the agency that approves, issues and oversees work permits and their holders and employer sponsors.

“A lot of these breaches involve expatriate managers and senior personnel. We’re getting information they’re still not in order,” he added. Mr Thompson also reiterated that “it’s not cheap to get to these islands”, with small planes and boats typically charging $3,500 and $5,000 a time, respectively, to transport Department of Labour staff between these destinations and Nassau.

However, with access to the police plane, he added that such costs should reduce as the Department of Labour will only have to pay for fuel. “In addition, I need to be out of this building in the next two weeks,” Mr Thompson revealed of the Department’s Rosetta Street offices, as he outlined the impact from the recent Old Trail Road fire.

“We’ve found a temporary location to move to, but it’s very, very disturbing, very discouraging. I had a meeting with the senior management team today. We’re in crisis mode, and are going to transition as best we can and serve the public,” he revealed. “We’re looking at one or two locations. One is a bit more turnkey than the other.

“By Friday, the minister and the permanent secretary will advise me which location to go to. It [the fire] was a setback. We were right there. I’m just happy we did not move in prior to the fire. That would have cost the Department of Labour all its files and computer records. We’re digitising everything now.

“It’s caused a lot of disruption because we’ve already given up our leases and are supposed to move out of the Robinson Road and Rosetta Street offices. There are other lease holders now. It’s a matter of us moving out of these locations because other people can start moving in.”

Mr Thompson said “a couple of new computers” had already been moved into the assistant director of labour’s new Old Trail Road office when the fire erupted, whole files relating to the National Apprenticeship Programme and Public Employment Service initiative were also caught in the blaze. Officials were not able to re-enter the building to assess the impact.

“It’s disrupted the plans, but we’re at the point of looking to digitise a lot of government systems,” the labour chief said. “We’re going to scan in all our documents. I’m meeting with a contractor in the morning [today] to give us a quote and on how to scan all the documents. All the documents will be in the cloud so we will not have to worry if there is a fire or loss in the future.”

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