The 200 employees of the Wyndham Nassau Resort and Crystal Palace Casino are on work-to-rule and will remain operating as such until hotel executives come clean about offering employees separation packages and abruptly closing the resort temporarily.
Baha Mar, which owns the Wyndham, announced this week that the resort would be closed temporarily for six weeks beginning September 4 and ending on October 17.
But more than that, head of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) Nicole Martin told the media yesterday that the union is more concerned about the hotel offering employees early retirement and voluntary separation packages.
“Baha Mar is out of order,” said Ms. Martin.
“Just last week Baha Mar Senior Vice President Robert Sands told the union that the resort would not close. Now they turn around a come back to us with this abrupt closure.”
Furthermore, the union president said she was blindsided by the resort, which she says had no right to offer early retirement and voluntary separation plans to members before discussing it with the union.
“This employer did not speak with us. If closure has to happen, we were told the closures would come six months prior to the deadline for Baha Mar’s opening in 2014,” she said.
“At any point it became necessary to close the resort, we hoped the employer would have handled it in a way that did not raise question.”
She called the resort’s decision to close “suspicious.”
As of Tuesday evening Wyndham workers remained on work to rule.
“I’m not sure when it will end,” Ms. Martin said, “But this is to send a message to the developers that you cannot treat us however you like.”
“It cannot be right for thousands of Chinese workers to remain employed and Bahamians put out of work.”
Ms. Martin continued, “If you say you are only closing temporarily then why you would be offering any separation package if it’s only a six-week closure.”
“The only time in our relationship that any discussion of packages or separation comes up is in the case of layoffs longer than 10 weeks. So, if we are only talking about six weeks then where is this coming from?”
While some employees have considered accepting the packages being offered, the union president warned employees not to accept anything until the union is done negotiating with Baha Mar.
The union is expected to meet with Baha Mar officials at 10:00 a.m. today.