Senator unfazed by “crocodile” tears over restaurant closures

Opposition Senator and trade unionist Caswell Franklyn is criticizing Government’s Industrial practices which he says are hurting the working class.

An aggrieved Franklyn told Barbados TODAY that senior Government officials, including Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds and Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment Marsha Caddle meeting with Chief Executive Officer of Chaps Restaurant Limited Joanne Pooler on Monday after the abrupt closure of three restaurants leaving 150 workers on the breadline was mere public relations.

Franklyn said he represented some of the affected workers, and was not surprised by Chaps Restaurant Limited’s move to close Cin Cin by the Sea, Hugo’s Barbados and Primo Bar and Bistro. He said he was not impressed with the ministers’ rush to meet with the management, considering that there were hundreds of Government workers awaiting word about whether and when they would be compensated after being sent home.

“My concern is that Government ministers just want to rush in to get the limelight to let people think that they are doing something while Government is doing the same thing to its own workers and I ain’t hear no Government Minister get up saying anything,” he said.

The trade unionist said he was concerned that data entry officers who worked in the Immigration Department at the Grantley Adams International Airport were sent home since September 2019, but have not yet received any form of compensation.

“Some of them working for about 20 years and gone home without anything to show for it. I have written to the Prime Minister [Mia Amor Mottley], I have spoken to the Minister [of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson], and so far nothing.

“Those workers out of work for months, but now these people from Cin Cin, I believe they should get some sort of attention yes, but the Ministers rushing out with their crocodile tears trying to give the impression that they care, but they are not caring for their own workers, they are not paying them, is hypocrisy,” Franklyn said.

He continued: “The [former] human resource manager at Transport Board Elaine White, they forced her to retire and she retired and to this day she has not gotten her gratuity. She has to fight to get it and it is due to her. So when they are talking about Chap’s behaviour, they are spitting in the wind and it’s coming back at them. They are being hypocrites. They are not doing a single thing for anybody.”

Chaps’ CEO blamed declining visitor spend, a 2.5 per cent increase in VAT, an additional five per cent levy on restaurant bills and an “unfair” policy of granting duty free concessions to restaurants which are attached to hotels, for the abrupt closure.

However, Minister Caddle said Government was satisfied that what was reported regarding the levies and taxes in the sector was not the full story. Additionally, The Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Roy Morris revealed that according to his information, Chap’s real issue surrounds a dispute between the company’s two principal owners, but added that the notice placed on the entrances to the three restaurants failed to reflect the facts.

Meanwhile, Franklyn said he saw the closure coming since Chaps, which has been experiencing problems for some time, started sending home workers since last year.

Franklyn said Morris was correct in identifying power playing among top level management as one of the major issues.

“They have investors and the investors were not behaving honourably. But they were also not making money. Cin Cin was sending home staff and they were charging high prices but paying the senior staff a lot of money and not paying the junior staff. The people who were actually doing the work weren’t getting decent salaries. This was always a recipe for disaster. They have failed,” he said.

Franklyn revealed that since Monday’s closure of the restaurants, he spoke to an employer in the hotel sector who has shown interest in employing some of his members who have been laid off by Chaps.