Some employees are demanding increased salaries and gratuities.
Anthony Archer, an employee of the hotel who said he is the spokesman for the more than 400 workers, told the Bahama Journal Tuesday that employees are on edge.
He said they want gratuities increased from 10 percent to 15 percent.
“There are persons who work overtime and double shifts, but at the end of the day, when they look at their cheques, they are only receiving some $40 for two weeks’ gratuities,” Mr. Archer said. “[Managers] need to follow the law and pay us what is due to us.”
According to Ramesh Sadhwani, the resort’s general manager, management held a meeting with the staff on Monday to explain how the base salary works.
He believes that a lot of the staff members are still confused regarding their pay.
Mr. Archer said that the hotel is under-staffed and managers are forcing many staff members to work in two and three positions, but he claimed they are not being paid for all the hours worked.
He said the employees want to be unionized and have already contacted Hotel Union President Pat Bain.
Several other employees at the resort told the Bahama Journal that within two weeks of the hotel opening, more than 60 employees left as a result of bad treatment from employers.
Angelica Rolle, a former office assistant at Four Seasons, said she along with many other staff members were fed up with the way their bosses spoke to them and treated them.
“This is the 21st century and no human being should be talked to in the way that some of those bosses speak and treat the staff,” Ms. Rolle said. “Some of the executives seem to have no care in the world for the way that staff are treated.”
Another employee, who wished not to be named, said that he believes the hotel is attempting to frustrate the Bahamian workers so that they could bring in foreign staff members.
“I believe these people are totally picking at the employees in an effort to cause them to leave so that they say that the Bahamian workers don’t want to work, but that’s not the case,” he said. “Believe me the people at the resort, they do want to work, but the things that they have to endure for the couple of dollars, just isn’t worth it.”
In an interview with the Bahama Journal on Tuesday with Mr. Sadhwani he claimed that all was well with the resort.
“It seems that everyone is very interested in always trying to come up with something negative about the resort, which to me is puzzling because this is the best thing that has happened to the Bahamas and the Family Islands in a long time,” he said. “I think people should be a little more positive about what is going on.”
Mr. Sadhwani boasted of the wonderful holiday season the resort just recently experienced.
“We’ve had a very good festive season, staff are happy, the guests have being absolutely phenomenal about how friendly and how accommodating our staff are,” he said. “Things are very well at the hotel and we are looking forward to a very busy year.”
When the 183-room resort opened in December, it had 487 employees, 210 of whom were Exumians. Management had said during the opening that it expected the workforce to increase to 500 by the early part of this year.
Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal
