A group of Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union members staged a demonstration in front of the Ocean Club golf course on Paradise Island this morning alleging that managers of the exclusive golf facility are guilty of unfair treatment and wrongful dismissal of employees.
Union General Secretary Leo Douglas said the action was taken to call attention to the ongoing tension between management and employees. Mr. Douglas said relations between the parties have progressively worsened over the past 12 months.
“We have had many, many problems where we reported to the Human Resource department and other top management asking them to please intervene and see what they could do at the golf course,” Mr. Douglas said.
“We are here to sensitise the management to our grievances and indicate to them that we need to work out some sort of resolution. We want to say to management that all is not well at the Ocean Club Resort.”
Mr. Douglas cited a number of grievances that he said were at the root of this morning’s demonstration. He said Ocean Club management had fired employees for “petty, little things”.
Additionally, Mr. Douglas alleged that an Ocean Club manager “sprayed sewer water on an employee”.
“After he did that, and the employee asked him why he did such a thing, the manager turned around and terminated him,” Mr. Douglas said.
Senior Vice President of Administration at Atlantis J. Barrie Farrington said he was disappointed that the group decided to express their concerns to the public before exhausting all of the avenues within the company to address their grievances.
“As far as it is practicable, we like to address issues on an internal basis because our philosophy is that the employees are our employees, although they might be members of the union,” Mr. Farrington said. “It’s in our mutual interest to try to dispatch the difficulties, alleged or otherwise, as rapidly as possible and obviously as amicably as possible.”
The union members, however, said if Ocean Club management does not agree to meet with them soon to work out a resolution to the grievances, the industrial unrest would escalate.
“We’re just beginning our protest,” one union member said.
By Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
