BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - ONE HUNDRED employees of the Royal St. Kitts Marriott Beach Resort & Casino Ltd. were shocked this morning (Apr. 16) when they arrived for work, only to find that they were to be terminated.
According to reports, bus loads of employees who arrived on the premise of the resort this morning were met with a police presence at various entrances, but had no idea that they were about to be faced with termination papers.
One terminated cashier spoke to SKNVibes and said that even upon arriving at her station she was not aware that anything was amiss.
“I went to open my bank box this morning and all my cash was missing. I normally have EC $500 and US $500 in the bank. I went in this morning and turned my key, because I was to open the place for 7:00, and I found there was no money there.
“After that, I called the management to tell them I can’t find my money. When the manager came, I was told to follow them but they didn’t tell me where I was going. When I reached, they had papers for me to sign and a cheque.”
Rumours of cutbacks were circulating for as long as two months another employee said, but the General Manager, Flor Van der Vaart, had allegedly told them that the prospect of redundancies was nothing more than a rumour.
“There was a rumour about people being laid off, and when we went to our boss to ask about it he said, ‘no, it is just a rumour’,” the employee told SKNVibes. “They said they were just going to cut people’s hours instead of laying off people.”
While on the scene speaking to a number of employees who were terminated, SKNVibes also spoke to one young man who had just arrived for his 10:00 a.m. shift.
“Yeah, I’m afraid. I came here and I thought those ladies were joking,” the employee said. “Now I have to go inside and see if I still have a job.”
An official statement issued by the Royal St. Kitts Marriott indicates that while “ensuring the well-being” of associates at the resort is a top priority for the chain, the global economic impact on the tourism industry has required the company to “take steps that more closely aligns our staffing needs with the realities of today’s business climate”.
The release goes on to state that 100 of the resorts 706 employees, or 14.2 percent of the entire staff, are “being made redundant” and the resort is “hopeful of rehiring many of those made redundant as business conditions improve”.
While the release from the Marriott states their optimism of rehire in spite of an expected “decline in rev par (combination of occupancy and rate) higher than 30 percent”, the documents employees were asked to sign this morning indicated otherwise.
The letter outlines the employees’ “termination as it relates to the payment in lieu of notice”. The letter goes on to explain that the employees would receive a number of payments and benefits after signing the papers, including their regular pay for hours worked, any Holiday or Vacation Pay owed to them, potential Severance Pay owed, continued insurance coverage and a Payment in Lieu of Notice, varying from one week to four weeks based on how long the employee was with the company.
One employee who spoke to SKNVibes said, however, that she refused to sign the document because the final line stated, “I accept the above entitlements in relation to my termination of employment by the Royal St. Kitts Beach Resort Ltd.”.
“I told them I’m not signing that. They told everyone that we were being laid off, but that says we’re being terminated. I’m not stupid,” she said.
The termination document is signed by the both the General Manager and the Director of Human Resources, Lisa L. Parker.
Marriott officials stated that they had attempted to prevent the cutbacks by implementing a hiring freeze, reducing scheduled hours and aggressively cutting costs. While these measures did not prevent job losses entirely, it was stated by the Marriott that they had “helped keep such decisions to a minimum”.
