BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MANAGEMENT of Clear Harbour, a call center situated within proximity of the RLB International Airport, unceremoniously closed their doors to business at approximately 3:00 p.m. yesterday (Mar. 30) without prior notice to some 131 employees.
On arrival at the location at about 3:20 p.m., SKNVibes had observed a number of sad-face employees standing at the entrance to the building that housed the company.
In an attempt to speak to senior management concerning the situation, this publication, on approaching the entrance, was informed by the company’s security that no member of the press was allowed entry to the compound.
Shortly after, however, Minister of Labour Hon. Sam Condor arrived on the scene and was subsequently followed by a group of armed members of the security forces and the Federation’s Labour Commissioner, Spencer Amory.
After several minutes waiting for a comment on what transpired, screams and loud shouting were heard coming from inside the building, reportedly made by the unemployed workers while expressing their feelings on the issue.
Moments later, one middle management employee emerged from within the secured compound and explained the situation to this media house.
“It is total chaos inside and I can understand why. In 2009, the year of the company’s inception, we were promised that one of the things that separated them (Clear Harbor) from other call centers, is that they were going to be here for a long period of time and they were not going to close like the others that were here before on short notice. Evidently, that is not the case, because today we were given notice at 3:00 p.m. that the company will be shutting down today.
“This is a clear form of mistrust because I’ve lost my job on short notice and I feel it even more for others who have migrated here from other islands such as Dominica, who are now unemployed,” the former middle management worker said.
According to the individual, “It happened all so sudden that it was a shock to the 131 employees.”
“At 3:00 p.m. exact, the calls stopped coming in and all systems were closed off, and that was when we were informed that we would be out of a job. There was no apology…no sensitivity by the management staff towards us. We were only told to collect our pay-slip and that was it,” the former employee added.
It was also revealed by the former employee that it was rumoured that the call center was going to close its doors, but “not in this disrespectful manner were we expected to be informed”.
Meanwhile, in his statement to the media, Minister Condor said he was called about the situation and went the location to further investigate.
“I was called when I was home having lunch and was told that Clear Harbor was closing down. It was also revealed to me that some persons (management) went to the factory to shut down the company and the workers were very upset. I immediately called the Labour Commissioner and I was told the some officials were there from the Labour Department having a meeting with them. I immediately drove to the Labour Department and, in conversation with an official, I was informed that the company was closing down and I explained that is not how we do business here,” Condor said.
The Minister noted that his next move was to visit the location where he held discussions with the workers, whom he said “were very upset”.
“They told me that they wanted an assurance that they would be treated fairly. We can’t reverse that decision that was taken today, but we want to make sure that going forward that the workers would be adequately compensated, the Minister said.
Following the departure of the Minister, two officials from the Social Security Board arrived and quickly behind them was the Labour Commissioner.
When questioned about the reasons for his presence at the location, Amory explained that he was there to meet with the workers and management. He however noted that further information would be provided on the matter on completion of the meeting.
Clear Harbor has been providing customer care and business process outsourcing (BPO) services since 2004 through its operations centers in the Eastern Caribbean.
With facilities in Dominica, Grenada and St. Kitts, the company had over 1000 employees with its headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia.
In 2009, the call center brought its operations to the shores of St. Kitts and the company was ranked number 53 on Inc magazine's 2009 list of the fastest-growing privately-held companies.
