Over 70 employees at Morton Salt Company in Inagua will be laid off as salt production has halted due to inclement weather.
With a current staff of 144 people, that means one-half the workers will be sent home.
Morton officials say the employees will be placed on short-term layoffs while keeping their job benefits.
The company intends to rehire the workers when when weather conditions improve, hopefully in the beginning of the new year.
The Tribune newspaper spoke with Glenn Bannister, general manager of Morton Salt Bahamas Limited:
“We realise this is a very sensitive period with the holidays, so we are working with the unions to try to minimise the impact of the employees being affected. They will be going on lay off but will retain all of their benefits such as insurance and the like, and as soon as we are able to return to normal operations everyone will be brought back to work,” Mr Bannister told the paper.
The operation relies on Inagua’s normally dry weather conditions to produce the salt, as it allows saltwater in ponds to evaporate which eventually stimulates the formation of salt crystals at the bottom of ponds. Excessive rain reserves the process and dissolves the salt crystals in the pond, leaving the site without product to harvest.
Morton Bahamas Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Morton Salt Inc., which is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
