The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

And NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Reporters

THE GOVERNMENT’S labour chief yesterday confirmed the Department of Labour had been informally notified that 40 workers have lost their jobs with the closure of a major Port Lucaya Marketplace restaurant in Freeport.

Howard Thompson, the director of labour, told Tribune Business that, while no official notification or communication had been received, the Department’s Freeport office had been told that now-former staff at the Agave Lucaya restaurant are searching for new jobs.

“That’s what we’re hearing,” he said in response to this newspaper’s inquiries. “That’s what’s been reported to the Department of Labour; that 40 persons are no longer employed at the Agave Restaurant. We don’t recall receiving any communication from them, but I’ll double and triple check. We do not recall receiving any communication from Agave, but I will certainly check.”

Under the 2017 reforms to the Employment Act, employers are required to inform, and consult with, the minister of labour in writing at least two weeks’ in advance of any date on which they plan to make 20 or more staff redundant. They must provide the reasons for the terminations, the number and category of workers to be affected, and the period of time over which the redundancies are to be carried out.

Tribune Business was tipped on Friday by a former employee that the Port Lucaya Marketplace eatery had shut down and all staff released. Efforts to call Agave during its regular business hours went unanswered, with the phone just ringing out, and e-mails sent to its address over the weekend were not responded to. A Tribune reporter who visited the location at the weekend during its normal business hours also found it closed.

Nick Vikatos, president of the Port Lucaya Marketplace Association, initially confirmed he had heard about the restaurant’s status but referred questions to its majority owner, Noel Clarke.

“I heard something, but the best person to talk to is Noel Clarke,” Mr Vikatos said. When called back, he confirmed what Tribune Business had been told and that its records reflect - that he is a minority partner in Agave.

He reiterated that Mr Clarke would address Agave’s status, and did not deny the restaurant had closed or that staff had been terminated. “I’m a minority partner,” Mr Vikatos said. “Mr Clarke is majority shareholder. He will be addressing Agave’s status

Tribune Business attempted to contact Mr Clarke through the telephone number provided by Mr Vikatos but received no response. This newspaper tracked down an alternative overseas number for Mr Clarke, but three calls - as well as text and e-mail messages - went unanswered yesterday.

The messages sought confirmation of Agave’s current operating status, the reported closure, the reasons behind any shutdown, and whether the restaurant was being offered for sale as suggested by Tribune Business sources.

Edwin Bartlett, a former Agave waiter and bartender, who sent this newspaper a letter about the closure, also could not be contacted despite multiple attempts to subsequently reach him as his phone appeared to be off. He detailed the financial and psychological impact the loss of his job has had on himself and his five children, blaming the restaurant’s closure on the lack of visitor traffic and economic activity in Freeport and the Marketplace.

Mr Bartlett also said the Government’s “promises” of economic revival have yet to be fulfilled, citing “shuttered” restaurant doors plus retail stores that are “quiet” and empty. “I am writing this letter at my kitchen table after my five children have gone to bed, because I do not know what else to do with the fear in my chest,” he wrote in a letter What’s App’d to Tribune Business.

“For 11 years I showed up and smiled through tired feet and long nights. I poured drinks and carried plates for tourists and locals alike, and I never missed a shift. Agave was more than a job. It was how I paid the light bill, bought school shoes, and kept my children's lunches full. Now more than 40 of us, my brothers and sisters in the trade, have been put out on the street.

“I am not a man who likes to complain. I have given this government a second chance, and then another. When the promises came about the Port Lucaya strip, I listened. When they said help was on the way, I believed them, because a man with five children has to believe in something. But I am ashamed to say I have seen no progress,” Mr Bartlett added.

“I have seen no crowds and no airlift to fill our hotels. The ferry comes twice a week, and the visitors are too few to keep a restaurant alive. Meanwhile, the GBPA has no answers, and neither does the minister for Grand Bahama. And I am the one left to answer to my children.

“My youngest asked me last week why I was home so early. I told her Daddy was resting. How do I explain that Daddy is afraid? Afraid of the rent, afraid of the knock at the door, afraid to open the refrigerator and count what is left? I have applied everywhere, and the answer is always the same: Nobody is hiring. The shops are quiet and the restaurants are closing. So where does a man in my position go?” he continued.

“I am not asking for a hand-out. I am asking for the dignity of work, which is the only thing I ever wanted. Our leaders walk these same streets, and they must see the shuttered doors and the empty tables. They must see the faces of people like me. Do they feel nothing?

“To those in authority, I say this: My patience is gone, but my hope is not yet dead. Prove me wrong. Bring the visitors back, and bring back our jobs, before there is nothing left on this island but empty buildings and broken families.”

Agave opened in around 2012 or 2013. It offered Caribbean and Latin infused menus, with Bahamian, Mexican, Cuban and other flavours. One Freeport source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of Agave’s seeming closure: “Things are getting really bad if the Agave restaurant has closed down.”

Another added: “That is quite possible given the circumstances surrounding Freeport’s economic plight and with the hotel [Grand Lucayan] still being closed. It is one of the bigger restaurants we have, a family-style restaurant, but this shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s just a sign of things to come.

“Without sufficient investment and transportation that gets visitors to this island, we have no US dollar purchases to justify investments here because the locals aren’t generating enough income to support these kinds of things.”