The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

EIGHT persons were terminated from the Melia Nassau Beach Resort Tuesday night amid a dispute between the hotel and the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union over gratuity payments.

BHCAWU Secretary General Darren Woods told The Tribune the union will hold a strike vote on Friday after several failed conciliation meetings with Baha Mar.

Mr Woods said the firings were a “scare tactic”, however, Melia officials said the terminated employees did not meet performance standards.

The union filed a trade dispute with the Department of Labour after the management at Baha Mar withheld gratuity from employees until the parties negotiate a new gratuity rate.

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.

Mr Woods said he believes the workers were terminated because they “stood up for their rights” and refused to be taken advantage of by the hotel.

“They terminated those persons and told us it was because they did not pass their probationary period, but we know that is not true. These were persons who were seen on television and who attended the meeting at the Ministry of Labour. Those were the persons that were terminated,” he said.

“So now we are going through the appeals process because the hotel violated our industrial agreement and we will be taking a strike vote on Friday. Those persons, according to our records, were no longer on probation. It has also come to our attention that the hotel is requiring new employees to sign a contract that goes against our industrial agreement. This firing is a scare tactic, they want the employees to back off and the union to back down, but we will not. We will fight this. So we are encouraging all 320 union members to come out and vote yes, so we can take this to another level.”

In a statement released yesterday, management at Melia denied the firings were retaliation and said the employees did not meet performance standards.

“Out of respect to employees, Melia does not speak to individual cases of employment. However, like every employer, we have a clear probation period for all new employees to ensure that all workers meet our performance standards, which are key to making Melia a success. Melia has hired approximately 80 workers in recent months, and the large majority of those new employees continue with us in good standing,” the statement said.

“We understand that we have been accused of retaliation against employees, which is simply not the truth. We would like to highlight that a large number of our employees participated in two illegal strike actions back in December. Despite this being a significant breach of their terms and conditions of employment, Melia chose to treat this with the utmost understanding and sensitivity, and no employees suffered any consequences for their participation.

“Melia calls upon the union leadership to stop with the rhetoric and grandstanding and resolve this situation as soon as possible so that we may distribute the all-inclusive gratuities to employees. We remain prepared and ready to meet to end this difficult situation.”

The strike vote will take place from 9 to 5 on Friday at Workers House on Tonique Williams Darling Highway.