No decision yet on request to terminate resort workers

~ Five months have elapsed ~

PHILIPSBURG--Although government is required by law to make decisions on termination requests within six weeks, the Labour Department has not yet issued a decision on a request made five months ago to terminate the services of 49 Simpson Bay Resort workers.

  The request was made in July and was part of an agreement signed among Simpson Bay Resort and Marina (formerly Pelican Resort), government and Workers Institute of Organised Labour (WIFOL) in April. The agreement paved the way for the reopening of the resort.

  That agreement stated that the resort would reopen its doors after a brief closure over a labour dispute, but would proceed with the termination of up to 50 workers. The resort opted at the time to file a request to dismiss 49.

  Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Unions (WICLU) President Theophilus Thompson told reporters at the chamber?s weekly press conference on Thursday, that the Labour Department?s inability to make a decision on the request after so many months showed that it was incapable of handling certain matters. It is also having a negative effect on the workers in question.

  Thompson said all the workers had received letters following the signing of the agreement in April, informing them that they would continue to receive their salaries pending a decision on the dismissal request. They were placed on inactive duty.

  However, Thompson said that although a decision had not yet been received from the Labour Department, the 49 workers, along with the 145 who had been dismissed recently by the resort?s General Manager Jules James, had not been paid at the last pay period, last week Thursday. Thompson said this was illegal on the part of the resort.

  He said the workers could have ?gotten on with their lives and possibly even found new jobs by now? if the Labour Department had made a decision on the request in a timely manner.

  The Chamber of Unions is worried about this matter, in particular about the state of these workers who will now have to spend Christmas without salaries and without a decision on a request made five months ago.

  The Chamber is also concerned about Simpson Bay Resort and Marina?s most recent action to stop payment to these workers although a decision has not yet been received from the Labour Department. 

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/23714-no-decision-yet-on-request-to-terminate-resort-workers-.html

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