The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The hotel union’s president yesterday said he expects the “law to take its course” as a small group of workers protested at the Department of Labour against Atlantis’ decision to fire a shop steward.

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union’s (BHCAWU) president, led the action after Princess Adderley, a 25-year employee at the Royal Towers and the union’s shop steward for the housekeeping department, was fired for allegedly “inciting a work stoppage and gross insubordination”.

The union is alleging that she was dismissed without due process, and that Atlantis is making her a scapegoat and holding her responsible for an incident Ms Adderley alleges she played no part in. An Atlantis spokesperson declined to comment on the matter yesterday.

Her termination stems from an incident that occurred last Friday when Atlantis allegedly refused to pay for Bahamian independence shorts for Royal Towers staff, telling employees they would have to cover the costs themselves. This triggered other grievances held by Atlantis staff, including the failure to agree a new industrial agreement with the BHCAWU and allegations that workers were owed back pay and gratuities by the resort.

This ultimately resulted in some Royal Towers staff refusing to work, and the union is alleging that Atlantis is blaming Ms Adderley for encouraging this when she was not involved. She and Mr Woods said the union told workers to resume their tasks, but they refused.

Mr Woods said: “We now expect for the law to take its course because we are a group of law-abiding citizens and there’s a process. There is an appeals process, but we did not expect for this to get to where it is today.” Union sources, though, conceded that workers cannot walk off the job for pay-related grievances but only if they are being forced to work in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

The union’s contention, though, is that Ms Adderley has been fired for something she did not do and played no part in. The union shop steward said she was elsewhere in the resort when the walk-off took place. Ms Adderley said: “On Friday I was in the Coral Towers dealing with an appeal, and when I walked into the situation they were already doing a briefing.” She added that she expected to be directed to speak to senior Atlantis officials, but was not.

“Since we are in our work area, we have a right to stay in our work area until they come to speak with us,” Ms Adderley said. This led to Atlantis senior management finally organising a meeting with Ms Adderley and two other shop stewards, and they were told that they could “wear the shirts, once it is in compliance with the colours of the flag”.

She added: “They wanted us to pay for the shirt to wear on Monday”, and asked management why employees needed to do this. She further accused management of “treating the employees like slaves”, and Ms Adderley claimed senior executives took offence to those comments and subsequently determined to terminate her employment.

Mr Woods said: “We had the initial meeting on Tuesday where, within their right, management then took the decision to suspend her without pay for two days for investigation purposes. Yesterday was the return from suspension, where we then said: ‘You did your investigation. Then let’s see what your investigation produced’.”

He added that he asked Atlantis management whether Ms Adderley complied with their requests, and they confirmed that she did. He added that he also inquired whether she incited a work stoppage, arguing that it was impossible for Ms Adderley to incite anything she already met occurring.

“The employees were asking to see her before they went to the floors, and she met them in their work area and told them to go to the floors. They went. They went to the floor. So again, how did she refuse to do so what they (Atlantis management) said? They said it was the way in which she said it,” Mr Woods added.

The union and Atlantis are in the middle of industrial agreement negotiations, and Mr Woods said it is a very “tense time” as talks have been “lagging”. He vowed to meet with the minister of labour and Immigration, Keith Bell, to address Ms Adderley’s dismissal directly.

Harrison Williams, the BHCAWU’s first vice-president, said Atlantis has “no respect for the Government of The Bahamas” and added: “This lady should have never been terminated. The Government has to get involved to the point where they have to deal with Atlantis. They are getting away with too much in this country.”