The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Hotel workers are exposed to a Value-Added Tax (VAT) -induced cost of living increase without any prospect of a base salary rise until 2016 at the earliest, a former union presidential contender charged yesterday.

Dave Beckford, who led Team Destiny in its unsuccessful 2013 election bid, said many of the concerns facing the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) and its members could be traced back to the current leadership’s failure to meet the deadline for kickstarting talks over a new industrial agreement.

The Bahamas Hotel and Restaurant Employers Association (BHREA), in an advert taken out in November 2013, said the union missed the October 8, 2012, deadline by which it had to submit its proposal for a new industrial agreement.

The then-existing agreement between the two sides, which expired on January 6, 2013, mandated the parties to issue their new contract proposal 90 days before that date.

As a result of the union allegedly failing to meet that deadline, the BHREA adopted the position that the terms/conditions of the agreement that expired in early 2013 would remain in effect for another three years.

This, Mr Beckford told Tribune Business, effectively meant the union and its members would be exposed to at least one full year of VAT without any compensating increase in salaries and benefits.

And, suggesting that current union president, Nicole Martin, and her team had missed the October 2012 deadline because they were caught up in the same election campaign he lost, Mr Beckford said union members had been left without the “security” and protection of an industrial agreement.’

This, though, was denied by union general secretary, Darren Woods, who said hotel workers it represented still had necessary protection because both it and the BHREA were operating as if the terms and conditions of the expired 2013 agreement were still in effect.

Mr Woods, though, conceded that salaries and benefits - and any potential increases - were not covered, with the employers association having put the matter before the Supreme Court.

Still, Mr Beckford said: “I want the [union] administration to be upfront, tell us the truth about the negotiations for a contract.

“Tell the members why was a proposal not submitted before the contract expired. Our salaries are not being increased, there is no lump sum to look forward to, and nothing to protect the workers. If an employer commits a violation, there is no recourse for the employee and the union.”

Robert Sands, the BHREA’s principal, told Tribune Business there had been no movement on negotiations for a new industrial agreement.

“There seems to be no light, no negotiations going on, and we are now faced with the cost of living going up and VAT, and no increase in wages,” Mr Beckford told Tribune Business.

“We need an increase in our salary, we need to get our lump sum, and are hoping and praying this administration can somehow negotiate a contract on our behalf.

“We have single mothers struggling to pay mortgages, rent, and our salaries cannot remain the same while everything is going up.

“You calculate the millions of dollars that the employers are saving by not giving an increase in wages, gratuities and not having to pay a lump sum. It’s almost two years since the last contract expired.”

Mr Beckford charged that this had “never happened in the history” of the BHCAWU, and hotel workers - the largest private sector industry and union in the Bahamas - were having to watch impotently as others, such as BEC’s line staff, successfully negotiated their own industrial agreements.

The previous industrial agreement gave union workers a total $700 lump sum payment, split into two ($300, then $400), with a base salary increase in 2012.

Mr Beckford, meanwhile, suggested that it was possible for hotels to now unilaterally attempt to vary workers’ pay and benefits, given that there was no protection from an industrial agreement.

Baha Mar attempted to do just that recently by reducing the 15 per cent gratuity enjoyed by Melia employees, and Mr Beckford argued that there was nothing to stop Atlantis, the Ocean Club, British Colonial Hilton, Club Land’Or and the Lyford Cay Club from following suit,

Mr Woods, though, denied that the union’s members had no protection as a result of the industrial agreement’s expiration.

“We’re still living with the spirit and terms of the contract, although it’s expired,” he explained. “The only thing that means is no increase in wages and benefits.

“They [the workers] still have the protection. The only thing happening is there are no [salary] increases going forward, but the terms of the agreement are still in force.

“From time to time, there are infractions that we have to go in and deal with. They still have the protection they need.”

Mr Beckford, meanwhile, said he was “not optimistic” that anything could be done for the former 190 Crystal Palace staff laid off recently. He pointed to the fact that nothing was done for the 140 staff terminated in 2013.

Arguing that the hotel union should not permit Baha Mar to escape unscathed from this, Mr Beckford said it also meant that the BHCAWU had lost membership and representation at Cable Beach.

He added that the National Insurance Board (NIB) deductions from hotel workers’ gratuities were another issue. At 9.8 per cent, these were greater than the 3.9 per cent deductions from base wages. As gratuities accounted for the majority of worker pay, they were being ‘taxed’ at a higher rate on the biggest chunk of their income.