Labour Minister Dion Foulkes shared some words of advice to the 73 workers Commonwealth Brewery Limited’s made redundant.

The group was laid off  in what the company says is a restructuring exercise – it’s first such decision since going public.

CBL Director of Retail, Ron Hepburn chalks it up to increased operational costs, coupled with increased competition from imported beer brands.

Minister Foulkes said, “number one, seek the unemployment benefits  which will give them some leeway until they are able to find another job and number two which is very important is to register for the Labour Department’s with our employment exchange.”

The Minister gave this advice based on the number of jobs  he said that was created in the economy in the past six months which he said, adds up to some 2,300 jobs.

Based on what the Minister shared with reporters outside cabinet  yesterday morning, some of those made redundant have already taken advantage of the new positions CBL’s offering. 

“The law says that any number over 20 are being made redundant, that there must be  a two-week notice period to the Minister of Labour and anything under 20 must be  given a  one week’s notice period.” 

“I was very pleased of the measures that Commonwealth Brewery adopted,  even though its bad news.” 

“This includes the counseling for those who were effected and doubling the severance pay to all of those persons that are affected,” Minister Foulkes said.    

O f  the 73 workers made redundant, 53 were employed in New Providence and the remaining 20 in Grand Bahama.

The redundancies occurred within the 700 wines and spirits’ retail division.

Mr. Hepburn noted that this was the first major exercise of this nature since the company went public.

Affected employees received four weeks’ pay for every year employed, for up to 48 weeks.

They were also paid their accrued vacation, and offered one-month free health insurance; which, Mr. Hepburn added, is unheard of under these circumstances.