UPDATE: Long Bay staff served letters offering voluntary resignation
This news agency secured a copy of the letter from employees who were very disturbed at the manner the letter was served and the way the issue has so far been handled.
Under the same heading, the letter further stated, “If you voluntarily resign, then your effective resignation date will be August 19, 2013, and you will be paid all severance that is due to you in accordance with BVI Labour Laws. Your severance will be paid in full by September 1, 2013.”
The management of Long Bay Resort also told employees that they were going to be handled on a first come first serve basis as the company has limited amount of money to pay severance to everyone. “Once the money is used up, we will no longer be able to accept request for voluntary resignation with severance pay,” according to the document, “The voluntary resignation and severance programme is on a first come, first served basis. If you wish to voluntarily resign and receive your severance pay please see financial controller Richard Wagner as soon as possible,” the letter continued.
On Thursday, July 18, 2013 General Manager of the Long Bay Hotel and Resort, Mr Hugh Robertson told this news agency that they were not willing to cooperate with the media in releasing information as it related to employees and that they had not completed the list of requirements that were requested by the Labour Department of the Virgin Islands. Twenty Four ( 24) hours after, employees were slapped with the letter.
Come August 19, 2013 when the resort closes, those who do not voluntarily resign will be temporarily laid off. “All remaining employees will be furloughed (temporarily laid off) during the period August 19 – October 23, 2013. Furloughed employees will be recalled as of October 23, 2013 to prepare for the resort reopening on October 25, 2013.”
The letter further states, “Once the resort reopens in October, it is very likely that business will be slow and we will be forced to shorten work hours and reduce employee work week (eg. 3 or 4 days work week) accordingly. These reductions will remain in effect until such time as the resort’s occupancy levels can support normal staffing schedules. There will also be the possibility of permanent layoffs if the resort operation cannot support all staff positions.”
It is very likely that going forward Long Bay will close on an annual basis during the summer and fall months due to low occupancy levels, employees were forewarned.
Employees who made contact with Virgin Islands News Online categorically stated that they are not happy about how things have unfolded and they are demanding the immediate intervention of the Labour Department and the Premier of the Virgin Islands.
“This is total nonsense, this is what they are doing to us. We are people with feelings and a heart, we served and they need to come better than this. All the time they knew what was coming and even the media had more information than us and now this,” said an obviously distraught employee.
Efforts to reach Mr Robertson as well as the Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour, Mr Ronald F. Smith-Berkeley, were futile as of post time.
See previous article posted July 18, 2013
Long Bay Resort not answering questions about workers' severance
- Confirms major downsizing to come; says VI finally hit by global economic recession
“I am not prepared to make any statement about the restructuring of the workforce at the moment. That will become clear within time. All I can say is that we are working closely with the Department of Labour and they have been fully notified and are assisting us with what needs to be done,” said General Manager of Long Bay Resort, Mr Hugh Robertson in an exclusive interview with Virgin Islands News Online on Wednesday July 17, 2013.
“That seems to be the focus of the media, is that they are focusing on the employment situation,” Mr Robertson added as he repeatedly back away from responding to any questions that spoke to its human resources. The Long Bay Resort is likely to send home the largest number of persons for 2013 thus far by any business operations in the Virgin Islands.
This is a major concern to the employees as they said management is being unfair to them by going public to say it will be closing and re-organizing the operations yet it has not indicated to them what their fate will be. “Just what they telling you guys is more that what they are tell us their workers. We all just existing one day after another here and we have no clue what will become of us after the 19th of August,” said one employee.
Permanent Secretary within the Ministry for Natural Resources and Labour, Mr Ronald F. Smith-Berkeley confirmed to Virgin Islands News Online that the Labour Ministry had an audience with the management of Long Bay Resort and advised against making a “hasty decision” especially when it came to its current workforce. He said the Department of Labour has given the resort a number of things that it must provide regarding human resources.
Mr Robertson noted that the resort is yet to fulfill a long list of requirements as stipulated by the Labour Department. “It’s quite a long list,” he said.
Major downsizing to come
The management of Long Bay Resort, located at the Western End of Tortola, VI, has come clean that it will definitely be engaging in a major downsizing of its operations and while stating that he has not been deeply following the effects of the global economic crisis, Mr Robertson said it has become obvious that the global crisis has finally hit the Virgin Islands and it is being felt especially in the tourism sector.
He said the scaling down of the operations of the Long Bay Resort has been long in the making and that the company has finally come to the point that it must be done as it is operating a ‘business’.
Mr Hugh Robertson sought to justify the company’s decision for what it has termed as a “streamlining” of operations. He said the owner, Mr Robert Barrett, bought a very ‘complicated’ business model in 2004 estate property. “Although there are only one hundred and fifty nine rooms on the estate, the hotel only owns a small portion of it.”
He further said that with the declining number of tourists coming to Tortola, the company was forced to reassess how it was doing business. He said management made a conscious decision to inform the owners of the sections that are not owned by the hotel that it could no longer be of service to them and would be severing ties.
This process he said would see them closing the sections own by the hotel from August 19, 2013 and re-opening a much smaller operations on October 25, 2013. This he said will see them absorbing all the customer clientele that they have been getting over the years. “We are restructuring the hotel to take focus on the rooms that we own.”
He, Mr Robertson, declined to give names of any of the private owners of the sections that will be closed saying that he is not at liberty to do so but hastened to note that they are persons from all around the globe and that they were positive in their response. Some sections that are connected to the property of the hotel will be boarded up in the process.
The sections that will be closed off are the estate homes, villas and poolside apartments.
56 Responses to “UPDATE: Long Bay staff served letters offering voluntary resignation”
Did you read that. We are working closely with labour. I'm not prepare to make any statement at this moment.The w***e man run things in this world. We as bl@*ks have no say.Our leaders are like puppets on a string.
Where is the Minister in charge of this Department? After hearing some of the Top Employment Providers having lay -off , down-sized or whatever name they want to call it; you would have thought that the Minister in Charge of OUR Labour affairs would have stepped in by now . Is the Government NOT CONCERNED about the welfare of its CITIZENS???? Get off your 4KING posteriors .Put an Immediate FREEZE ON ALL NEW WORK-PERMIT APPLICATIONS ALREADY!!!! If major businesses are down-sizing ,what the hell do you think the Small businesses are doing???? STOP PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH THE CITIZENS LIVES !!! THE SAME WAY THAT YOU PUT A FREEZE ON YOUR CIVIL SERVANTS INCREMENTS, I THINK THAT IN ALL FAIRNESS , A FREEZE ON ALL NEW WORK-PERMITS SHOULD BE IN ORDER !!!
Please get your hands on a copy of the labour code and read for yourselves before accepting.
If you resign you are not entitled to severance. If they send you home then you are entitled to it.
GOD BLESS US ALL at LONG BAY and the BVI
you less than $400 per hour. a kind of a homeless shelter for sleazebags. make them put on a big
fire dance on the beach for the tourist ships to see, and set themselves on fire....