The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Hotel Catering & Allied Workers Union will decide today whether it will take a strike vote against the Meliá Nassau Beach Resort over a gratuity dispute involving some of the unions’ members.

Speaking with The Tribune, BHCAWU Secretary General Darren Woods said two meetings with the government and the hotel have been “unsuccessful” and employees cannot go another week having their gratuity withheld.

Last month, Baha Mar executives announced a reduction in the standard 15 per cent gratuity rate because it is moving to an all-inclusive model where food and amenities are covered in one price.

Baha Mar has said it was forced to cease the normal 15 per cent gratuity payments at the Meliá Nassau Beach Resort, after 10 months of negotiations failed to bring an agreement with the union on a new arrangement.

However, Mr Woods said the union would not accept a reduction in gratuity because in most cases the gratuity represents the majority of the employees take home pay.

“This is the second meeting with the Labour Department and there has been no movement. Nothing has happened, no side has budged and the hotel is still withholding the gratuities. So we will now do whatever the law allows us to do, which includes taking a strike vote,” he said.

“The Department of Labour has asked management to do certain things and that will determine our next move. We will not agree to eight per cent instead of 15 (per cent). Our contract does allow a per person, per night rate but the hotel does not want that. We cannot allow our members to have their take home pay reduced. We will decide our next move (today).”

On Christmas Eve, Baha Mar and its Melia resort obtained a Supreme Court injunction that bars the hotel union from taking any form of industrial action, leaving workers without any leverage over their gratuity dispute.

Documents show that Baha Mar and Melia’s operator raced before the court on Christmas Eve, where they obtained the injunction from Justice Roy Jones at a hearing where only their attorneys were present.

The injunction’s terms are designed to be “watertight”, and prevent the hotel union from initiating any form of industrial action. It cannot even tell its members to withdraw their labour by staying at home.

At that time, Mr Woods pledged that the union would seek to overturn the injunction, or alter its terms, at a hearing where both sides’ attorneys will be present.