NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Amidst increased occupancy at some major resorts on New Providence, Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) President Darrin Woods said yesterday the union is monitoring whether the Atlantis resort will considering bringing back individuals who have been made redundant.
According to hotel executives, Atlantis is seeing 90 percent occupancy rates as it heads into its busy summertime period, and similarly, Baha Mar saw a 75 percent occupancy rate this past weekend.
Woods told Eyewitness News: “Of course we are concerned with people who are still home and we’ve been working assiduously with Atlantis to see how many persons can be brought back to work.”
He said several of his members have advised they have been working additional days and shifts during the peak travel period.
“We are trying to see how best we can spread it over more employees to try and get more of them in,” he added.
Woods said he was advised by hotel executives that the increase in guests will only be for a short period.
“We are trying to monitor it as best we can to ensure that more people are able to benefit and hopefully as we progress more into the summer months,” he said.
The BHCAWU president noted that as tourism increases throughout the country, the union hopes workers will be given more days and furloughed workers can return to work.
Atlantis President and Managing Director Audrey Oswell told Eyewitness News yesterday that the hotel is calling in furloughed workers every week.
“We have over 3,000 team members back right now,” Oswell said.
“We opened two more restaurants in the last two weeks. Initially, we were going to only open up a portion of the Coral Tower — the Ocean Wing — but because of business demands, we opened the entire tower.”
Woods said the union also hopes workers who were previously severed could be reengaged if there’s a need for additional bodies, noting the hotel made some 700 employees redundant in May.
Pointing to the hospitality department of Atlantis, he said: “There’s one particular hotel for a particular area where they are advertising for employees.
“Persons would have just been severed last month. Yes, we are hoping those persons would be in the rotation or in the consideration for the first right of refusal reengagement or to get those positions back.”
