The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A FREEPORT-based attorney said yesterday he may seek the Supreme Court’s assistance in the disbursement of monies owed to former City Markets employees, amid suggestions that staff had rejected an offer to receive 20 per cent of the severance pay due to them.

Telling Tribune Business that he was hoping to receive word on the sale of the company’s assets “any day now”, attorney James R Thompson said: “The parties who are dealing with the sale are going to pay the money through me because I represent the employees in the court matter, and I will make arrangements through the courts for the people to be paid.

“My main concern is that whatever is paid for the assets, all of that goes to the employees. We are acting on both the severance issue and the pension issue, but the main thing is the money has to come from the sale and the sale has to be completed. The lawyers told me up to Tuesday that no money has exchanged hands. I’m part of the court transaction.”

Mr Thompson added: “The main thing is for the lawyers who are dealing with the sale to close the matter so the monies can be paid out. I’m hoping it could be any day now. They got a cheque on, I think, Tuesday on the pension plan part of it, and I’m trying to make sure now the disbursement of that happens, but I think we may very well have to get the courts to determine how that is paid out. 

“I’ve made an application to the court already, and as soon as the court gives me  a date we will go and let the court know how much money there is , who the people are and let the court say what needs to be done.”

    Back in April, Mr Thompson secured an injunction on behalf of 10 City Markets employees prohibiting the disposal of funds or assets worth $189,000 from the supermarket chain’s pending sale to Super Value chief Rupert Roberts. 

“The court extended that injunction to everybody in Nassau to the sum of $2.8 million,” said Mr Thompson. “The injunction was an estimate based on the information we got as to what the amount would be for all the people, and that $2.8 million was what we told the court. Whenever the assets come into posession we want that amount held, so that these people can be paid by way of severance. If it turns out that the assets are less then it’s a different question.”    

Former City Markets inventory control auditor, Whanslaw Turnquest, told Tribune Business he would push for further legal action to be taken if the owners if the former retailer’s principals did not act in good faith.

Mr Turnquest said: “As I understand it their attorneys are saying they haven’t received the money as yet. What we find interesting is that the Cable Beach store is open, they are in business. Money must have transacted by now. The employees need to receive their compensation.”

Mr Turnquest said City Markets staff had rejected an offer to receive a percentage of their severance.

He added that the employees had rejected an offer to receive 20 per cent of their severance. “The employees want all their money, not partial payments,” he said. “They were offering annuity for all members of the pension fund under 25 years, and they wanted to use the $300,000 bond and the $800,000-plus from the assets of the sale at Cable Beach to pay off the persons over 25 years. I said that was unacceptable. The money needs to go in a pool and all the pensioners need to be paid off.”

Mr Thompson said, though, that that the percentage offer had never arisen. “All we are trying to do is make sure the assets are sold and the money gets to the employees,” he added. “What that amounts to we don’t know yet. We don’t know what the percentage is going to be. There was never any kind of discussion with me about what kind of severance people are going to get. We are just trying to get the assets sold. They never made an offer. We are in court trying to hold the assets and trying to get them sold, and then we can deal with disbursement.”

     Regarding the pension plan, Mr Thompson said: “The pension plan is very complicated, it is nowhere near as straightforward as it appears to be. We got people who retired some years ago and even they may have a claim to the plan.

“It’s a very a difficult matter in that sense. We have a list of  persons who up to August last year have been  there  25 years, and therefore are entitled to pensions. You have a group of people who retired some time ago and only now they are claiming their entitlement.” 

 Concerns over the Bahamas Supermarkets Profit Sharing Retirement Plan first surfacedunder BSL Holdings’ ownership, the 2010 accounts for City Markets’ operating parent, Bahamas Supermarkets, showing that some $971,452 in rental payments on the head office were owing to the pension fund as at June 30 that year.

And no contributions had been made to the plan by the company during the years 2008-2010. 

Subsequent majority owner, Mark Finlayson,  in statements to this newspaper on several occasions assured that the pension fund was intact. The pension fund’s main asset is the former Bahamas Supermarkets head office and warehouse on East-West Highway. Mr Finlayson had told this newspaper previously that the head office was up for sale.