The Government characterizes it as being about generosity, and about somehow ﾑstepping up to the plateﾴ. A lot of other Bahamians are calling it by other names. Reference here is to a much bally-hooed decision by the Government that it would ﾑpay offﾴ the Driftwood workers.
The Hon. Bradley Roberts told the former employees that once an amount owed to each employee is agreed to between the union and the employee, they could then sign to receive 25 per cent of their redundancy payment immediately. Within the next 90 days, he said, they would receive another 25 percent of their redundancy payment, while the balance would be paid within 120 days.
Last month, it was revealed that in addition to millions in severance pay, Driftwood owes some $13 million in Casino taxes, $4.1 to the Pension Fund, $2.7 million to the Port Authority and its group of companies, $2.5 million to National Insurance, and more than $55,000 to vendors in Grand Bahama.
No matter how you cut it, The Bahamian people are being called upon to carry the bag ﾖas it were- for the delinquencies and derelictions of both the investor and the government.
Something has got to be wrong with this picture.On this matter, the government is out of order.
Compounding the matter, Mr. Roberts told the former Royal Oasis employees that the government had not been able to develop a “full understanding” of what had happened regarding the company’s abandonment of its workers. And as we have also learned, Minister Roberts also stated that the government had made the decision to “step up to the plate” and pay employees their owed benefits while they wait for a final determination regarding what would happen to the Royal Oasis property.
On a note of the highest optimism ﾖ and probably based on insider information only, he assured that regardless of when matters are resolved between the government and Lehman Brothers, the company must repay the $8.4 million. “They will end up paying it in the end.”
Mr. Roberts told workers that the government was offering them redundancy payments out of “generosity” and not obligation. “This is unprecedented in the history of our Bahamaland, where your government has stepped in.”
That point noted, let there be no doubt about it:the Hon. Bradley Roberts, Minister of Works and Utilities was absolutely correct when he used the word ﾑunprecedentedﾴ to characterize the Governmentﾴs decision to help ﾑpay offﾴ a certain cadre of hotel and casino workers in Grand Bahama.
Not only is that decision unprecedented, it might well be illegal.
Like a lot of other inquisitive Bahamians ﾖ we need to hear from the government as to what was its authority for such a momentous decision. By the ministerﾴs own admission it was unprecedented.
Like Bahamians who understand some things about how business is conducted in the real world, we are obliged to confess that we have a very serious problem with a government decision to use tax-payer money to appease and placate workers anywhere in The Bahamas.
And furthermore, we would very much appreciate it if someone could tell us what is going to happen when other workers make similar demands upon the government. Truth be told, we fear that once the ﾑunprecedentedﾴ becomes policy in this instance, the Christie administration would be hard-pressed to explain why a similar policy should not be adopted in similar cases, and for another group of ﾑequally deserving Bahamian workers.After all, there would then be a precedent!
What we are getting at is simple enough: with the announcement that The government has agreed to pay some $8.4 million in redundancy payments to the more than 1,200 displaced workers of the Royal Oasis Resort in Freeport, Grand Bahama, it sent the loud and clear message that this was a suitable case for the employment of such a maneuver.
This deal will backfire. Indeed, there are already rumblings of disapproval from a significant cadre of workers who will not be mollified by half-measures and other legerdemain tactics.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
22 February, 2005
