PHILIPSBURG--Staff members of The Towers at Mullet Bay have been left disappointed after a meeting held with management on Monday, June 8.
Employees of The Towers received notice from the hotel’s General Manager Clarence Derby on April 1 that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic the hotel would send staff home with a 50 per cent reduction in the normal salary.
Derby held a meeting with staff members of the hotel to address the issue after several staff members of The Towers turned to the media and social media to voice their disappointment with the hotel’s manager in his handling of the current situation.
The entire staff of The Towers, more than 60 employees, was present at the meeting on Monday.
Howard Hanson and Nateisha Givans, two employees at The Towers, told The Daily Herald on Monday that they were left further disappointed after the meeting.
According to the two, staff members were not provided with any concrete information on what will happen moving forward.
They explained that Derby had said during the meeting that in an effort to protect his health and that of his staff at the time, a meeting to inform the staff members of management’s decision was not held during the ongoing lockdown. Holding such a meeting would have meant that more than 60 persons would be placed in a closed room and it was therefore decided that information will be provided to staff through their supervisors.
Staff were not provided with any written or formal notices of this new arrangement from management.
Aside from the reduction in their salaries, workers were also told to remain at home until further notice. Many employees were not pleased with the manner in which they found out about their salary reduction. Employees shared that the last form of communication was disheartening and disrespectful.
Derby also informed staff members that the hotel has applied for payroll support from the government, but has yet to receive any response in regard to its application.
“Once the government answers, adjustments will be made accordingly,” he told staff members.
All staff members of The Towers will continue to receive a 50 per cent bi-weekly salary until further notice. According to one person, this leaves them with an estimated US $200 salary bi-weekly, what he described as impossible to survive on in St. Maarten.
According to the employees, they were told during this meeting that “as for now, nothing will change.”
Hanson and Givans insist that their rights were being infringed on by the management of The Towers in their unfair treatment of their staff.
Based on the recent developments, the employees of The Towers have sought assistance in their plight from Workers Institute for Organized Labour (WIFOL).
WIFOL President Theophilus Thompson, on behalf of the employees, will be making a formal complaint to the Labour Department on the matter.
This newspaper has reached out to Derby for comment, but he declined to do so.
