Responding to threats by the Hotel Union that it may call industrial action at the billion-dollar luxury Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, a senior official at Kerzner International said on Monday that the company is committed to resolving any outstanding issues.
“All of our industrial disputes are handled via a process outlined within the industrial agreement between the Bahamas Hotel Employers Association and The Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union,” said Ed Fields, vice president of public affairs.
“I would assume that any disputes relating to that agreement would be handled as such. We are willing to meet at any place, at any time that is usually convenient…for both parties involved.”
His comments came hours after union president, Pat Bain, claimed that Kerzner was breaching the industrial agreement signed in 2004 after a round of rocky negotiations between the two parties.
Mr. Bain alleged that the resort has refused to honour the private binding arbitration clause, the section of the agreement that provides for resort executives and union officials to meet in private to discuss workers’ disputes.
He said following that meeting, the review board then decides the fate of the worker. If he or she is found to have been terminated illegally, the board then makes the decision to reinstate that worker.
Mr. Bain claimed that Atlantis has refused to honour some decisions made by the review committee.
“There have been a number of decisions by the review committee that required the employer to reinstate the employee,” he said.
“The employer has taken the position that they would rather not follow the industrial agreement or the recommendations of the committee and fail to reinstate the employees who were terminated to their respective positions.”
Mr. Bain indicated that if Kerzner continues to refuse to abide by the industrial agreement, the union would take industrial action.
“The options that we have [include] work to rule, sick outs, go slow and even to the point of filing a dispute at the labor department or taking the matter to another appeal like looking at the options of having demonstrations or strikes,” he said.
He added that Kerzner International was not the only resort with those complaints, but he highlighted a specific case at Atlantis.
“In the case of Sandra Rolle, their contention was that the young lady called some family member on the property to intercede on a matter,” the hotel union president said. “-If that did take place, then they should have called the police and allowed the police to settle that issue.
“They did that, but the police found that there was no case for them to get involved in. The hotel then summarily terminated the young lady which the industrial agreement did not give cause for them to do so.”
Mr. Bain added the review board found that Mr. Rolle was wrongfully terminated and recommended that she be reinstated.
Mr. Fields declined to speak to any specific claims made by the union president.
By: Perez Clarke, The Bahama Journal
