#BTEditorial – Mistreating tourism workers now will haunt us later

The tourism sector of the Caribbean, Barbados included, has long been dogged by complaints about low wages and suspect working conditions, sexual exploitation of girls and young beach boys, and denigration of the environment as massive construction on beachfronts threatens near-shore water quality and marine life.

In a category all by itself is the matter of racial discrimination. Who among us has not heard of black guests being profiled and not treated with the same respect as white guests? Or even the dubious hiring practices of these establishments when recruiting top-level management?

Barbados has been offering tourism services for over 100 years and to this day hotels owners still have hang-ups about black local management, despite them repeatedly proving their worth.

We would like to dismiss from our collective memory the case of the now deceased white Barbadian hotel manager Alfred Taylor, who was hauled before the courts by a black employee, Ingrid Quarless. She successfully claimed she was fired because she styled her hair in braids – a style which Taylor did not approve.

The then Grand Bay Beach Resort was thrust into the headlines in November 1986 when the activities hostess was awarded the princely sum of $2 000 by the courts as compensation for her wrongful dismissal.

One commentator in his newspaper column wrote: “Someone needs to tell Alfred Taylor that this is 1986 and not 1786. The attitude that he displayed in his handling of the dismissal of the sister who worked at his establishment shows us all that ignorance is alive and flourishing in this island.”

Fast forward to 2020. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) descends on the Caribbean in March. International travel is halted. Hotels, restaurants, bars and other attractions are forced to close their doors and thousands of workers in the sector and allied services are dismissed.

The fallout reinforces how deeply this sector impacts the entire economy. But it is the inhumane treatment of scores of hotel and tourism employees who have been denied severance and, in some cases, wages, that has further soured the image of the sector.

Desperate workers with very few options left open to earn a living in this beleaguered economy have been forced to stage marches and other forms of protest action to move tourism operators to compensate the very people they depend on to provide excellent service.

If we are not careful in Barbados, we run the very real danger of not being able to attract quality persons to the hotel and tourism industry because of its growing reputation as an exploitative, low-paying sector where there are few opportunities for upward mobility. The sector is very likely to be seen as more transitory than a serious sector for building a career.

The same phenomenon has impacted the agricultural sector which some say is on its death bed. Even young people with no income loathe the idea of being seen as an agricultural worker.

The fact is that no matter how much money can be earned, the importance of food security, it means nothing because the sector is associated with slavery, low wages, and back-breaking work for people with few options for alternative employment. Sadly, agriculture is now populated with old, often retired women, immigrants, and others who may be down on their luck.

Our young people have aspirations. They are much more educated than their parents and, slowly, the tourism sector’s stigma is making it less attractive. The current behaviour of many hotel and restaurant owners who have thrown their workers under the bus has done little to suggest that the sector is an ideal choice for people seeking a fulfilling career.

This is something that the leadership of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association must address as a matter of urgency or it risks reaping the whirlwind it has sown.

The images over the last few months of the COVID pandemic have not been a good look for an industry that supposedly is the main engine of our economy. How many of these workers who were treated so shabbily during this COVID-19 period will put on a cheerful face and provide genuine, quality service to guests?

Hotel owners and top management should be mindful that most repeat visitors say it is the interaction with local hotel workers and ordinary Barbadians that causes them to return to the island.

We say be careful how you treat your employees. COVID-19 will go away eventually. These experiences, however, will last a lifetime.