President of WIFOL Theophillus Thompson was seen laughing non-stop on Friday when he spoke to reporters. Thompson said the 183 workers who suffered from the SBRMC layoff stand to benefit from the court's decision even though some of them signed a one year contract with SBRMC out of desperation. It should be noted that two of the workers passed away since the Pelican saga started two years ago. Thompson said the SBRMC filed a case with the Appeals Court to put on hold the verdict of April 2, 2012 but SBRMC did not appeal the April 2 verdict and right now he does not know if SBRMC will file an appeal. Thompson said the workers were not paid since November 2011 and now the resort has to pay the workers retroactively their salaries and benefits. Thompson said the lawyers representing WIFOL are currently off island but when the legal respresentatives return they will seek ways to get the workers their monies.
In the meantime, SBRMC is negotiating the sale of the Pelican Resort to Hard Rock International. Thompson said the WIFOL stands ready to work with Hard Rock or anyone else that is interested in purchasing the resort.
