The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian restaurant entrepreneur yesterday argued this nation’s employment laws and regulations fail to match the realities businesses face in dealing with disruptive and non-performing staff after the Industrial Tribunal ordered him to pay $3,822 to an ex-employee fired for violating the company’s recipes.

Chef Kevin Culmer, founder of Tropical Gyros, even told Tribune Business that the Government and employment dispute tribunals need to “stand with” legitimate businesses more and have their “back” as he pledged to appeal the sum awarded to Ricardo Jones, a former cook with managerial status, who worked at the now-closed Freeport restaurant.

The Industrial Tribunal, in a February 17, 2026, verdict delivered by its vice-president, Helen Almorales-Jones, found in Mr Culmer and Tropical Gyros’ favour on two of three claims brought by Mr Jones. However, she ruled that the latter had been wrongfully dismissed because the restaurant chain, one of the two businesses successfully financed through the now-defunct ArawakX crowd-funding platform, failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify his summary termination.

Ms Almorales-Jones ruled that Tropical Gyros had not conducted an extensive enough investigation, as required by the Employment Act’s section 33, to establish “reasonable grounds” for “an honest and reasonable belief” Mr Jones “continued to render unsatisfactory performance in the quality of food preparation by failing to adhere to the recipes and guidelines” following his return to work following suspension for this failing.

And, besides failing to meet its “statutory burden” on this issue, the Industrial Tribunal also faulted Tropical Gyros for dismissing Mr Jones - who had been with the company for less than one year - without one month’s termination pay with notice or in lieu or notice, and just under another’s salary representing his time of service.

Mr Culmer, who revealed to this newspaper he has lost $500,000 in subsidising the Freeport restaurant’s losses prior to closing it down last year, said he had been left somewhat baffled and confused by the wrongful dismissal verdict. “I feel the Employment Act and regulations put on employers don’t take into account what happens on the ground,” he asserted.

The Tropical Gyros chief, who confirmed that Mr Jones was fired for departing from the restaurant chain’s specialist recipes and ingredients without permission, said this practice had cost it sales and customers because “it affected the flow of business in the restaurant. Persons stopped coming back; they were saying the food didn’t taste the same.

“It becomes very challenging when these things happen,” Mr Culmer added. “It’s unfortunate we had to get to to this point. There was a verbal and written contract that if changes were made to the recipes without permission that’s grounds for instant dismissal. He was terminated because he admitted in the initial interview with the Labour Board representative he did change the recipe, but he didn’t have the authority to change it because the recipe is my intellectual property.”

The Industrial Tribunal verdict went better for Mr Culmer, though, when it rejected Mr Jones’ claim that Tropical Gyros “unlawfully cut his pay” by 20 percent for three months starting with the November 15, 2024, pay period. This was triggered by concerns that “some stealing was going on” at the Freeport restaurant based on its financial performance for summer 2024.

Rather than terminate management and staff, since “he could not prove who was stealing:, Mr Culmer produced a November 12, 2024, letter requiring managers to assume responsibility for failing to detect and prevent this by accepting a 20 percent pay cut for three months.

“As per our managers meeting on Saturday, November 2, this letter is to formally notify you of the decision that was made at that meeting to cut the managers pay by 20 percent for three months,” Mr Culmer told staff. “This is in direct response to the gross mismanagement of the affairs of Tropical Gyros Freeport resulting in losses in excess of $72,000.

“These losses occurred via theft in many forms, and while we do not have court provable evidence of which individuals were involved, the numbers point to excessive spending month over month on inventory products even with declining sales.

“Additionally, after this was initially pointed out in the beginning of September, we have seen a return to more normalised cost of goods which further supports the statement of gross theft during the months of July and August. This pay cut will take effect on the November 15 payroll and will continue for three months. After the end of the three-month period, we will reassess where we are and make any necessary changes as need.”

Mr Jones denied being involved with any stealing, and alleged that the letter was unfair. He claimed Mr Culmer then threatened to report him to the Labour Board, but “at no time did he agree to take a 20 percent pay cut for three months.

“He agreed that the respondent [Tropical Gyros] did cut his pay for three months and he allowed them to do it because Mr Culmer had threatened them by saying if they did not sign the letter, he would tell the Labour Board that we were stealing from him,” the Industrial Tribunal said of Mr Jones’ evidence.

However, Mr Culmer, in evidence submitted to the Industrial Tribunal to justify Tropical Gyros’ stance, said: “In September 2024, it was discovered that there was a massive theft ring within the restaurant to the tune of $63,000 in inventory over expenditures. It was pointed out that during the months of July and August, our cost of goods far exceeded the normal business model costing upwards of 91 percent of our revenue.

“As an example, in August 2024 we achieved revenues of $73,000 but spent on inventory alone $66,430, representing 91% percent of our revenue. Once I was able to certify this I met with management, of which Mr Jones was a part of being the kitchen manager, and expressed that I would be conducting a full audit to determine who was responsible and, if they were caught, I would prosecute to the full extent of the law.

“At the end of September we achieved sales of $69,250 but only spent $44,187 - some $45,000 [sic, $21,000] less on inventory but yet only doing $4,000 less in sales. This proved to me that the theft has now been curtailed,” Mr Culmer added.

“In determining the way forward I was left with two options: Terminate all the managers for incompetence in allowing it to happen, terminating all staff and closing and hiring new management and staff to continue operations. Or ask management to take all take a pay cut of 25 percent to allow for the company to continue moving forward or they could resign their employment. Every manager, including Mr Jones, agreed and signed a letter to this effect. This proved to me that the theft has now been curtailed.”

The Industrial Tribunal did not find Mr Jones to be a credible witness on this issue. “The applicant initially testified, ‘I can't remember if I signed this letter agreeing to the pay cut’ and subsequently said, ‘I don't remember signing it’. Given his dubious and conflicting response, the Tribunal believes that he did sign the letter to signify his consent to the deduction.

“If he did not agree to the deduction, then the respondent [Tropical Gyros] cutting his pay by 20 percent for three months without his consent amounted to a significant breach going to the root of the employment contract, which entitled the applicant to affirm the contract and insist on its further performance by the respondent or accept the respondent’s repudiation of the contract and consider himself constructively dismissed by the respondent.”

The Industrial Tribunal continued: “In the instant case, the Tribunal finds that the applicant has failed to establish that the respondent’s chief executive/ president told him, if he did not agree to the decision to cut his pay by 20 percent for three months, he would tell the Labour Board that the Freeport management team had been stealing from him, amounted to a coercion of the applicant’s will so as to vitiate his consent to the salary deduction.

“The Tribunal dismisses the applicant’s claim for unlawful deductions as he has failed to prove, on a balance of probabilities, that the respondent had unlawfully deducted 20 percent of his wages for three months from November 15, 2024.”

Mr Culmer yesterday asserted to Tribune Business that all Freeport managers, including Hallie Jupp, his step daughter, as well as Mr Jones had agreed to take a pay cut. “I didn’t know who was responsible for the theft, but local management were responsible for the restaurant,” he added.

The Tropical Gyros chief said the Freeport outlet’s “cost of goods” went from 39 percent of its $97,000 sales for June 2024, the month it opened, to 84 percent of July’s sales which were some $12,000 less at $84,000. This expense, though, then shot up to 94 percent of August 2024’s $73,000 sales, meaning that Tropical Gyros was spending more on goods that month despite a $23,000 sales decline compared to June two months’ prior.

Asserting that this was when he realised “some serious theft” was going on, Mr Culmer said that for September, while sales were $4,000 less than August at $69,000, the cost of goods was less at 44 percent of the top-line. “I spent about $40,000 less on the cost of goods. It was only possible because people stopped stealing. We put cameras in and held everyone accountable. I presented the managers with those alternative options,” he added. And the Industrial Tribunal also dismissed Mr Jones’ claim for unfair dismissal.

Mr Jones was suspended by Tropical Gyros for poor food quality and “gross insubordination” on January 24, 2025. This related to “altering the standardised recipes of Tropical Gyros as created by Chef Kevin Culmer. This practice contravenes the employee manual for food preparation and has led to a significant amount of customer complaints about our food, and also a significant decline in food sales,” wrote Theron Smith, Tropical Gyos’ vice-president for northern affairs and general manager.

“It is imperative that all kitchen staff follow all the standardised procedures with regard to Tropical Gyros food preparation to ensure the consistency and high quality of food made. In addition to the above, today while in the kitchen, you demonstrated gross insubordination by dousing the meat on the grill with a bucket of water right after you heard me explain to Marie the correct way to put out grill flames, and why this dousing of the entire grill practice needs to stop.

“You clearly had no regard for what the general manager said, and again decided to do your own thing your own way. Please note this behaviour is very disappointing as a leader and kitchen manager, and is not in line with our company code of conduct and will not be tolerated at any time.”

Mr Jones asserted that he never admitted to altering Tropical Gyros’ recipes, but then received a termination letter on February 3, 2025. “This decision has been made due to continued unsatisfactory performance in the quality of food preparation and failure to adhere to the recipes and guidelines provided by management,” the restaurant chain wrote.

“Despite previous discussions and feedback regarding the necessity of maintaining high culinary standards and consistency in menu execution, there have been ongoing concerns regarding deviations from established recipes and a decline in the overall quality of the dishes served. As maintaining excellence in our food quality is paramount to our business and customer satisfaction, we can no longer overlook these issues.”