Sandals Resort Barbados lays off 200 workers

Barbados: Sandals Resort, Barbados laid off 200 workers on Monday following the downturn faced by them in their business. It has raised concerns about the job security in the tourism sector.

The information of making 200 workers redundant was unveiled by Toni Moore, the general secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union. She shed light on the need for job security to align with the provisions of the collective agreement between the Barbados Workers Union and the Barbados Hotels and Tourism Association.

While accusing the hotel of undermining unionization efforts, she stated that the resort directly consulted workers about the termination of their contracts without union involvement.

On the other hand, the Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, Javon Griffith, stated that laying off people is their typical seasonal pattern. While supporting the resort, he stated that the General Manager, Surinder Kahlon had already indicated that the layoffs are not related to the BWU.

The Chairman continued to say that the Hotel Manager initially indicated that the workers were laid off under discussion with the Ministry of Labour for the last three weeks. And, nothing was done in unsystematic manner.

“They are seasonal layoffs because things are about to go quiet, and it is nothing union-related as others would try to make you believe,” were the words said by General Manager of Hotel Surinder Kahlon, according to Chairman Javon Griffith.

The Chairman of BHTA also said that after Crop Over, many hotels usually cut back on their operations. Some hotels even close for renovations in September when they face a significant decrease in their business. He added that workers get redundant if their closure period exceeds their holiday entitlement.

Chairman Griffith also asserted that he is not sure whether the management of Sandals Resort Barbados would be able to rehire the redundant workers or not. He stated that there is a slowdown of business and some internal rationalisations are also going on. Therefore, he cannot speak if any person would be rehired or not.

The General secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union, Moore also expressed her concern that the hotel management might held a fair or any competition in order to replace the old workers with new workers.

Following the news, citizens expressed their views on the matter through their comments on their social media account. One person commented “Why is the BHTA chairman speaking with so much authority on employment in the industry to my knowledge, I never heard any of the ones before did that and still can’t answer if they will be rehired.”

Another person commented the following “sandals need to be made an example of all the hotels workers not only at sandals should come together and decide no one going to work for sandals until they change their policy a hotel can’t operate and stay open without workers but the question is having the workers enough courage to make a stand against sandals??”