FREEPORT, GRAND BAHAMA — Twenty employees at the Freeport Container Port were laid-off yesterday as the facility recorded a 37 percent drop-off in business, Labour Director Robert Farquharson confirmed last night.
Farquharson said: “The Freeport Container Port would have communicated with myself in my capacity as the Director of Labour and Minister Keith Bell in his capacity as the Minister of Labour and advised that they laid off 20 persons with effect from today. Those persons were paid all of their contractual and statutory entitlements. They were laid off pursuant to Section 26 of the Employment Act 2001.”
He said: “We are satisfied that as a result of the Container Port losing 37 percent of their business, they would have been justified in reducing headcount. Last year after consultation with the government and the Ministry of Labour the Container Port hired 120 people.
Farquharson added: “Of those 120 persons they reduced headcount by 20. The government is satisfied that they fulfilled their legal and statutory requirements.”
The Freeport Container Port began operations in 1997 and is the largest transshipment terminal in the region. The Freeport Container Port is operated by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Limited.
They saying twenty more today.