The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A rival contender for the hotel union leadership has accused the current executives of “betraying” Melia Nassau Beach Resort workers by not informing them of the resort’s plans to alter gratuity payments 10 months ago.

Dave Beckford, who confirmed that he plans to challenge incumbent Nicole Martin for the union presidency in May’s election, questioned why Melia line staff only found out about the resort’s intentions at the last minute.

He argued that despite being engaged in negotiations with the resort for 10 months, prior to its decision to drop the gratuity rate from 15 per cent to 8 per cent, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) executive had kept their members “in the dark”.

“Why weren’t they [the workers] informed earlier?” Mr Beckford asked Tribune Business in a recent interview. “There’s no reason, and I don’t see any excuse, why they weren’t informed about what the Melia wanted to do 10 months ago.”

“It’s a betrayal. They knew what the employer wanted to do, and they left the workers out there on their own believing this came up on the day gratuities were reduced.”

Melia and its Baha Mar owner, plus the union, have been locked in an acrimonious battle for several weeks over the resort’s plan to cut the gratuity rate in the 85 per cent of its property that will be all-inclusive.

Melia is arguing that he drop is necessary to maintain its “economic viability” as it transitions to a more all-inclusive model, and arbitrarily elected to put all due gratuity payments into an escrow account after it was unable to reach agreement with the union after 10 months of talks.

Melia and Baha Mar have also obtained a Supreme Court injunction preventing the union from taking, or facilitating, any illegal industrial action or work stoppages. They, and the union, are due back before Justice Roy Jones tomorrow for another hearing on the matter.

Mr Beckford acknowledged that Melia and Baha Mar had “a right to make a decision”, but said this should not be done in isolation, requiring discussions with the union first.

He added that if the gratuity had to be reduced, the Melia could possibly compensate by increasing the employees’ low base salary, saying: “There has to be a better way than this.

“Sit down and see if you can come to an amicable position on this. The gratuity is really what the worker’s salary is all about, as the base pay is low. It’s a big chunk of take-home pay.”

Mr Beckford expressed concern that the Melia dispute, and the way it has been handled, had set “a bad precedent” for hotel industry industrial relations.

He also questioned if the union would retain a presence at the Melia, and warned that it was losing its “heart and soul” due to a loss of properties and consequent decline in membership numbers.

“This [gratuity dispute] proves that the relationship between Melia management and the union is bad, very bad,” Mr Beckford told Tribune Business. “If this trend continues, we may not have a union at the Melia.

“At the end of the day, the workers are being greatly impacted and not benefited in any way, shape or form.”

Mr Beckford said a major thrust of his campaign will be to challenge why current union executives failed to submit a proposal for a new industrial agreement with hotel employers by the required October 2012 deadline.

The failure to do so, he argued, had left the union’s members without the protection of a binding industrial agreement and the ability to file trade disputes/take action against employers that violated it.

Both the Bahamas Hotel and Restaurant Employers Association and the union have previously confirmed they are behaving as if the terms of the industrial agreement that expired in January 2013 are still in effect.