Industrial unrest could be on the horizon in the hotel sector if a meeting between the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and the Bahamas Hotel Employers Association scheduled for later this week is not successful in resolving a number of outstanding labour matters, a senior hotel union official said over the weekend.
According to union general secretary, Leo Douglas, the BHCAAWU’s dispute with the BHEA originated shortly after the parties signed an industrial agreement in 2004.
In an interview with The Bahama Journal, Mr. Douglas said as part of a protracted process to have a number of union grievances addressed his organisation has filed a general dispute against the hotel employers association with the Department of Labour.
The next step in attempting to resolve that dispute, he said, will be a meeting on Wednesday.
“That dispute is against all the members of the association so what that means is if we cannot get that matter resolved at the labour department we can send a call out to take a strike vote against all of the member properties,” said Mr. Douglas.
Claiming that some BHEA members have consistently failed to abide by provisions in the industrial agreement, particularly section 45 which deals with binding private arbitration, Mr. Douglas said those member properties are making a mockery of that provision.
“We have been experiencing much difficulty, particularly with Kerzner International (which) does not seem to have any respect for section 45,” he said.
“We tried and tried, we wrote letters to the president of the (hotel employers) association, and we wrote to the minister and asked him to convene meetings to see if we could resolve that particular problem because what happens is once we go through the process and we find that the workers’ rights have been violated under the industrial agreement you would find that the employers would not obey (the binding arbitration decision).”
Speaking with the Journal on Saturday Atlantis vice president of public affairs, Ed Fields, said he was not aware of the union’s filing of a general dispute against the BHEA.
In an earlier interview with the Journal, Mr. Fields said his company is committed to resolving outstanding labour disputes and would be willing to meet “at any place, at any time” to discuss any disagreement.
BHEA President J. Barrie Farrington was out of country and was not available for comment.
Under the terms of the industrial agreement, a review committee consisting of three members – one appointed by the hotel union, another by the hotel employers association, and the chairman who is agreed to by both parties – is empowered to decide disputes between the union and the association, Mr. Douglas said.
Despite this arrangement, he said, disputes between the parties still often remain unresolved for long periods.
“We would file a dispute, go down to the review hearing and get a unanimous vote, but even though we get a unanimous decision (the employers), particularly Kerzner, would say they are not obeying anything. They would say they don’t agree and that’s it,” he claimed.
“We have a situation with one of our members who has been out of work from 2004 and cannot get resolution even though we got a unanimous vote by (the review committee) saying they should reinstate him and pay him for all time lost.”
According to the union general secretary, the BHCAAWU is still working to have that decision of the committee enforced.
Questioning the cause of resistance to the binding private arbitration provision of the industrial agreement, Mr. Douglas said one of the difficulties may be that some negotiators are not familiar with the arrangement.
“The binding arbitration is not yet tested in The Bahamas because it’s a new thing,” he said.
“The agreement provides that if it does not work or proves unsatisfactory the parties would meet and go ahead to try to amend the agreement or probably take out (that provision). But it seems like that is working good for the employers because anytime there is a ruling in favour of the (union) members what they do is they disobey it because they figure you cannot take any action against the properties.”
By: Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
