Speaking in front of the resort after meeting with management on Tuesday morning, hotel union executive Lionel Morley told the media that although management continues to deny any pending layoffs, their actions indicate otherwise.
He said that over four hundred employees might be affected.
Mr. Morley said that while some workers continue to work seven days a week, others have been placed on a rotation schedule. He said that this new roster began approximately two weeks ago.
According to Mr. Morley, even though management has denied layoffs are forthcoming, the implementation of this new schedule is in line with the final phase of the industrial agreement between the union and the resort before layoffs are to take place.
He said that union members have a right to be forewarned, and should brace themselves for the inevitable.
"What is so suspicious is that the industrial agreement talks about the rotation and what should happen in times of layoff and how it should be applied contractually. Management has now resorted to week on and week off, and I am not certain if they had gone through the short work week and short work days," Mr. Morley said.
"While they are denying this, that is a move to position themselves to eventually lay off or terminate the workers at Our Lucaya. It is very suspicious at this time, and I believe that it is our job as representatives of these people, to be the eyes and ears of the workers at Our Lucaya," he said.
Mr. Morely charged that it also unreasonable and unfair in these hard economic times to take half of the persons of the schedule for each area and leave half on to work 37 and a half hours, while others are working no hours.
He said management has to take into account that many of these workers have families to take care of each week and cannot afford to be home doing nothing for an entire week. Furthermore, Mr. Morley said that the industrial agreement provides that where there are days to be shared, they should be shared equally.
"It is troubling and it brings a level of uneasiness to us," he said.
"The reasonable thing to do is to spread the roster as wide as you can to ensure that everybody gets a piece of the pie. The reality is, children need to eat, children need to be sent to school, rent and mortgages need to be paid, light bills need to be paid and we need to be seen working together and working in good faith and in the spirit of that industrial agreement that they recently signed, whereby people can be their primary focus," he said.
Mr. Morley said that the workers have a right to know what is going on.
"I don’t want anybody to say that Lionel Morley and the executives here in Freeport went behind their backs and knew that they were going to be laid and was not transparent enough to forewarn them and secondly, kept the information to themselves and [the workers] were caught off guard," he said.
He noted that the Sheraton Our Lucaya has been closed down for three weeks due to renovations, according to management.
"We have to be very careful with these people," Mr. Morley, adding that several weeks ago management stated that there will definitely be no layoffs at the hotel and that the Sheraton’s brand, which expires on December 19, 2008, would be extended to July 31st, 2009.
"The next week, Sheraton was closed down," Mr. Morley said. "I just want our people to understand that they have reason for concern but at the same time, our fate still lies in the hands of the good Man who has led us thus far. I believe He is not going to leave us now to die," he said.
On attempting to contact them, the Journal was told that General Manager Veronica Clarke and Human Resources Manager Renee Mckinney-McPherson were in a meeting, and that they had no comment.
