Director of Corporate Services at Sandals Resorts International Jeremy Jones said the resort decided not to consult with the employees about what was possible with respect to their employment situation in the context of the need to close the resort for urgent repairs "because of the urgency of the situation", and he defended the decision not to lay staff off, but to make them redundant.

Jones asserted that there was no choice but to close the resort "at this stage of the game".

"Could we have delayed it? We probably could have but you never know what the impact could have been at the physical plant," he said.

On the question of whether the resort consulted with the employees regarding what was possible in this context, Jones said, "At this stage of the game, we didn't just because of the urgency of the situation. To delay may have been more detrimental to our health. We could have probably tried the option of laying off staff, but laying off staff would mean sending employees home without necessarily having a pay check to rely on."

Jones asserted that by putting a severance package in place, persons were sent with a couple of thousands dollars to help sustain them for two months.

Addressing concerns raised by the temporary closure of Sandals Royal Bahamian, which resulted in more than 600 workers being made redundant, Jones called into Guardian Talk Radio program "Connected" hosted by Lester Cox on Friday to explain the resort's actions and further discuss the fate of those employees.

Job fair
After the redundancies were announced, notice of a job fair that will be held next week Monday to Thursday sparked controversy among union leaders, adding to the public squabble.

According to Sandals, the first two days of the job fair are reserved exclusively for former employees.

Next Wednesday and Thursday are open to new applicants.

Jones explained in detail why the resort needed to close. He mentioned that an engineer's report was received by Sandals recently, which prompted a sense of urgency for the resort to renovate sooner than later.

"That facility we are looking at in Nassau is over 60 years old, and we have been operating it for 20 years and as time has gone on, we have added to the facility and we have investments to the physical structure, rooms, restaurants and bars. I think right now the infrastructure is suffering from the weight of the expansion taking place over the years.

"The engineer's report came back to us recently, especially when it came to running our pools. We were losing thousands of gallons of water a day and that is negative impact on the environment. Coupled with that is the chemical consumption that goes up...We were just getting really worried that we may be comprising the integrity of the facility. It was a tough call to make and we are in the business of operating hotels and making guests and staff happy," said Jones.

Repairs
The repairs and upgrades which forced the resort's closure on August 15 are being fast-tracked at an estimated cost of $4 million and are to be completed within 14 weeks - what some in the resort call "a massive feat itself," considering the original time-frame for completion was appraised at four months.

Jones said the resort would like to reopen in time for the fall and winter business, which he added is always great business in The Bahamas.

"We really didn't have a choice at this stage of the game," he added.

"Could we have delayed it? We probably could have but you never know what the impact could have been at the physical plant."

Jones maintained that by putting a severance package in place, persons were sent with a couple of thousands dollars to help sustain them for two months.

"With good fiscal management people should be able to make ends meet over the next two months."

"That leads us to the job fair. We are going to try to find the best employees to bring back to the organization when we re-open in October.

"The training and development program that we do are pretty extensive.

"All the folks that were given a check last Monday and Tuesday, are going to come back next Monday and Tuesday to be interviewed for a job," said Jones.

Xian Smith, Guardian Business Reporter

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