The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Grand Lucayan staff have gone five weeks without pay for a second time, it has been confirmed, with the resort now owing a total $17m to its Bahamian and international suppliers and other creditors.

Well-placed Tribune Business sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that workers - including in-house security staff responsible for protecting the Bahamian people’s nine-figure investment in the property - have not received any salary payments and other due compensation since December 22, 2025, when the Government covered five weeks’ wages that were previously outstanding.

Obie Ferguson KC, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, whose Bahamas Hotel Managerial Association (BHMA) represents 91 middle managers at the Grand Lucayan, yesterday revealed his members are contacting him daily after going without pay for the entire month of January as well as the final week in December.

Describing the predicament of Grand Lucayan staff as one of the most “severe” situations he has dealt with, the union chief told this newspaper he has “never had this experience” where an employer both fails to pay workers what is owed and does not provide a timeline for remedying the situation.

Mr Ferguson said Grand Lucaya workers are presenting in a “no man’s land” because, besides not receiving what is due to them, they have not been officially terminated which means they cannot claim unemployment benefits and other protections from the National Insurance Board (NIB). Staff are thus unable to pay bills and obligations as they fall due, and cannot plan for the future amid the ongoing “uncertainty” over the Concord Wilshire deal.

Voicing particular surprise that the Government who is the employer at fault, having likely breached the Employment Act, industrial agreement with the BHMA and workers’ individual contracts of employment, Mr Ferguson added that he has yet to obtain a meeting with Prime Minister Philip Davis KC in a bid to resolve the situation.

However, Phylicia Woods-Hanna, the Government’s investments chief and head of the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA), yesterday pledged to Tribune Business that the outstanding salaries and other benefits owed to Grand Lucayan staff could be paid “any day now”.

Responding to messaged questions from this newspaper, she reassured that the BIA together with the Ministry of Finance and Attorney General’s Office “are all diligently working to settle all employees as soon as possible”.

Apart from the outstanding five weeks’ wages, this will also likely involve calculating the likes of any owed vacation pay, overtime and days in lieu amid ongoing preparations for the Concord Wilshire deal’s closure (see other article on Page 1B). “There’s a process being undertaken to make sure the employees are paid and, in terms of them being paid it could be any day now,” the BIA director said.

Tribune Business contacted Mrs Woods-Hanna after both Julian Russell, chairman of Lucayan Renewal Holdings, the Government-owned special purpose vehicle (SPV) that holds the Grand Lucayan, and Latrae Rahming, the Prime Minister’s communications director, both declined to comment on the staff non-payment and referred this newspaper to her.

The Grand Lucayan and its staff are said to be presently facing “a very, very dire situation” because, apart from the unpaid salaries and other benefits, the property’s water supply remains cut-off by the Grand Bahama Utility Company over an unpaid bill said to exceed $900,000. Tribune Business was told that workers still on-site are also fearing the Grand Bahama Power Company could turn-off electricity “any day now” over similar arrears.

Around 40 staff are understood to still be working at the resort, which closed to paying guests and stopped taking reservations on October 20, 2025, in anticipation of Concord Wilshire taking over and the sale closing. That, though, has yet to happen, and in the absence of running water and functioning bathrooms, the remaining workers - 35 of whom are women - are forced to currently “go across the street” to relieve themselves.

This newspaper was told that Miami-headquartered Concord Wilshire had initially wanted to close the Grand Lucayan on September 19, 2025, to pave the way for demolition and construction activity to take place. Executives from the prospective new owner communicated this to the resort’s management team one week earlier on September 12, and asked to meet with the rest of the workforce.

However, although a staff meeting was arranged, this was aborted at the last minute after it became clear that - in the absence of the necessary government representatives - Concord Wilshire executives would be unable to answer numerous questions such as the issues relating to termination and severance pay.

And, while the Government was aware of the October 20th reservations halt, Tribune Business was told it moved too slowly in organising a human resources and financial team to start assessing what was due to Grand Lucayan workers in terms of severance pay, benefits and other outstanding sums ahead of the planned transition to Concord Wilshire.

The resort is understood to have a roster of 309 workers contracted, with 77 of those full-time employees. The work to establish what was due to the only began in December 2025, this newspaper understands, some two months after the reservation shut-down. From that time, staff had been told to take lieu days, then vacation days, amid the lack of work.

The salary non-payment has been exacerbated by the lack of communication about the resort’s fate and that of the Concord Wilshire deal, with workers uncertain over job security and their futures. Grand Lucayan management, too, is understood to have been kept in the dark by the Government with no staff briefings taking place.

“The situation is only getting worse and worse,” one source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Tribune Business. “The golf course remains open but a private company, the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), the pressure they’ve gotten to keep it open, they are securing the golf course in terms of cutting the rough and fairways.

“You do have a skeleton crew, but not nearly enough to keep the golf course running. Someone is footing the bill for what the Government is supposed to do.” Tribune Business was also informed that the Grand Lucayan owes a collective $17m in payables to its vendors and suppliers, with the sums involved ranging from as low as $250 to as high as $1m.

“Every other week it’s something different with them,” this newspaper was told of the resort. “It’s just a dire situation; a very, very dire situation.” The Government budgeted no funding for the Grand Lucayan in the 2025-2026 Budget, seemingly in anticipation of the Concord Wilshire deal closing prior to the fiscal year’s start which, together with the Public Treasury’s tight cash flows, might explain the present payment difficultied.

The Government is thought to have been subsidising the Grand Lucayan’s operations by between $1.2m to $1.5m per month ever since it acquired the resort from CK Property Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa’s real estate arm, six-and-a-half years ago.

Some $17.882m was used for this purpose during the 2022-2023 Budget year and, during the first nine months of the following fiscal period, $16.632m out of the $17m allocated was spent on subsidising the Grand Lucayan.

A further $17m was estimated for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, with some $15.888m already spent during the nine months to end-March 2025. This pace placed the resort on track to require a $21m-plus subsidy for the full 2024-2025 fiscal year, meaning it would overshoot its Budget allocation by $4m.

Mr Ferguson, confirming that the five weeks’ outstanding wages “seems to be correct”, said: “I’ve made additional inquiries to meet with the Prime Minister and am looking forward to that meeting. I hope I can get it within the day.”

Asked about the impact on Grand Lucayan staff and his BHMA members, he replied: “Terrible. It’s terrible. They are on the phone to me seven days a week, twice on Sundays, and nothing has happened. I’m trying to see whether the Prime Minister can bring some sort of relief to them because they have commitments, they have mortgages, school fees, different bills. The whole shebang. It’s very, very difficult.”

As for whether he has encountered such a situation before, Mr Ferguson said: “Not so severe. There have been cases where payment was not made but the company always agreed that the workers would be paid on a specific date and did pay them. In this case, we don’t have any specific information as to when payment will be made.

“It’s a breach of the Employment Act, it’s a breach of the industrial agreement, it’s a breach of the agreement that expired but the terms become part of the individual worker’s contract. That’s a breach as well. It’s unfortunate that in The Bahamas we go through these experiences with the worker.”

Mr Ferguson agreed that Grand Lucayan staff are in an employment “no man’s land” - not being paid but unable to claim NIB unemployment benefit because they have not been officially terminated. “It’s a very awkward situation. I don’t understand the logic,” he added. “I am sure the Prime Minister will come up and do what he needs to do, but I cannot say definitvely when he might do that….

“This is a serious problem. It’s a really serious problem. I am the leader of 91 BHMA members, and I cannot tell them when they will be paid… I’m trying to do my best to avoid unnecessary situations, but it’s very difficult if you have a family and your employer is not paying you. They don’t want to fire you, don’t want to make you redundant. What do you do?

Mr Ferguson said the Government has requested that he and the BHMA submit a “proposal” regarding the Grand Lucayan in October 2025, but since then had received no response. “It’s the Government that’s at fault,” he added. “I’m very surprised. The Government has always been upfront with workers the past few years. There may be some delays here and there, but generally they come through.

“Here, there is no certainty. No certainty. If the workers go berserk, how can you say they are being irresponsble? They have children to feed, bills to pay. I find it difficult to understand. I’ve never had this experience. I’ve never had it.”