James was in a parliamentary session when Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs Franklin Meyers called him out of the meeting to confront him with a letter presented to government by Joseph Oniel, sales manager of Pelican Resort Club informing government that the resort formerly known as Pelican Resort Club and Pelican Marina Residences which was sold as of January 26, 2011 will close its doors on February 20th due to unforeseen circumstances.
Just last Tuesday a judge ruled in its summary proceedings that the new owners of Pelican Resort Club and Pelican Marina Residence are responsible for the 182 employees the company is seeking to terminate. The judge ordered the new owners of Pelican Resort Club to make sure the salaries of the workers are being paid since they are legally their employer based on article 32 and 34 of the Collective Labour Agreement with WIFOL.
On Thursday, the lawyers representing WIFOL sent a letter to the law firm representing Pelican informing them that if the workers are not allowed to begin working peacefully with the assistance of the government mediator then WIFOL and its members will begin individual litigations.
In the letter to members of the Simpson Bay Resort & Marina the owners claimed that unforeseen circumstances have caused the new owner to incur significant and unbudgeted expenses as well as judicial liabilities that requires massive financial injections in order for them to responsibly operate the Resort.
The letter further states that diligence, responsibility, long term viability of the resort, consideration of the interest of stakeholders and in particular the protection of the timeshare rights of all members for the long term, compels management to close the resort as of Sunday, February 20, 2011, until solutions are found. The general public is hereby informed that as of Saturday, February 19, 2011, no check ins will be allowed.
The closure of the resort does not entail the closure of the independent businesses operating on the Property. They remain open to the public, at their discretion.
SMN News learnt that a meeting was scheduled to be held with the Prime Minister and current acting Minister of Labour Sarah Wescot Williams for Friday afternoon. SMN News further learnt that WIFOL has informed government that they will not enter into discussions unless their lawyers are present.
HBN Law in a statement said that they learnt that the members of Pelican Resort Club (now called Simpson Bay Resort & Marina) will close its doors on February 19, 2011.
This announcement follows the ruling by the Court of First Instance in which it was considered (in short) that Royal Resorts (through an affiliate company) continued to manage and operate the resort (like it did since 1997) and thus remains responsible for obligations towards WIFOL and its members.
Since it became apparent that one of the objectives of Royal Resorts was to continue the operation without responsibilities towards the employees, this announcement does not come unexpected. It also makes clear why Royal Resorts did not want to discuss an orderly return to work with WIFOL and or the government mediator.
This announcement seems solely to be intended to pressure WIFOL to give up secured employment rights, as Royal Resorts will claim (without presenting any proof) that this is the only way to keep the resort open.
HBN Law regrets that as a result of the announcement by Royal Resorts, the uncertainty for the families of the members of WIFOL will continue.
WIFOL asked us to monitor the developments and instructed us to prepare to take the necessary legal action, including claims to return to the place of work.
While the new developments at Pelican might be understood by the legal representatives from both law firms and the government mediator, several of the workers said they are in shock to see how devious developers can be when their intentions are not pure towards their workers. The workers said Pelican made three proposals to them, the first being that they would grant everyone a 6 month contract, then a one year contract but the latest they said was Pelican was ready to hire 145 of the workers permanently while they were going to lay off 40 of the workers. These workers whose future is nothing less than dark said they want their government to begin questioning these developers and Member of Parliament Jules James about their flip flopping and to make sure an audit is conducted to see the company's true financial status.
