Staff to stay home while hotels, restaurants clean up

Some 290 hospitality workers are expected to be on the breadline for possibly up to six weeks, as some hotels and restaurants close their doors to repair damage caused by Hurricane Beryl.

After reporting that its members had not suffered any adverse effects from the passage of Beryl, the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) said a later audit of coastal and inland properties, hotels and other accommodation, villas, restaurants and catamarans uncovered significant damage to some businesses.

Of those who responded to the BHTA audit, 80 per cent said they will not be closing their operations, while 10 per cent will implement partial closures “in instances where parts of the operation were damaged but repairable in the short term for operation”.

Importantly, about 10 per cent of those entities that reported impacts by Hurricane Beryl, said they will be closing fully due to severe damage from the weather system, and laying off scores of workers.

The details were outlined by Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams in a Ministerial Statement to the House of Assembly on the impact of the Category 4 hurricane that brushed past the south of the island on July 1.

Abrahams told House lawmakers: “The period for partial and full closures will be one to six weeks. As a result of these closures, 19 per cent of respondents indicated that they would have staff layoffs impacting over 290 members across the industry. We await the submission of the greater details of damage to the Department of Emergency Management.”

In an update on road infrastructure, he said several streets required cleaning after Beryl’s passage.

“The three that stand out because of storm surge activity were Highway 7, the along Hastings, the Bridgetown Port, and the Oistins area,” he noted.

(IMC1)