The Court of Appeal has issued a ruling against the Commonwealth Union of Hotel Services and Allied Workers in its dispute with Hutchison Lucaya Limited, operators of the Grand Lucayan hotel in Grand Bahama. Union lawyer Obie Ferguson said the ruling effectively returns industrial relations in The Bahamas to the 1950s.
In short, the Court of Appeal has set aside Supreme Court Justice Hartman Longley's ruling that the workers are entitled to Christmas bonuses agreed under an industrial agreement, even after that agreement expired.
It is a ruling Ferguson intends to challenge in the Privy Council "as a matter of urgency" and an issue he feels so strongly about that he has urged Prime Minister Perry Christie and Labour Minister Shane Gibson to ensure that the people of The Bahamas help defray the cost of taking the case to the law lords in London.
The court held in a 14-page ruling that there was no express incorporation of the industrial agreement, nor could it be implied given the circumstances.
The court additionally noted that the proper parties to the action ought to have been the employers and the named employees.
Ferguson explained that it is long-standing practice in The Bahamas that once a properly registered industrial agreement expires, and in the absence of a subsequent registered agreement, the terms of the agreement are superimposed on the employment contract for the individual worker.
The ruling by the Court of Appeal - in Ferguson's view - appears to reverse that practice.
In fact, Ferguson said the Court of Appeal ruling will have "a sweeping effect" on 100 cases where the practice has been upheld, even by the Supreme Court and the deputy registrar of the Supreme Court.
"Now we have a complete reversal of those rulings and the workers are left high and dry," he said. "It has national importance and implications."
Ferguson told Guardian Business that "in practical terms the ruling means an employer can refuse to negotiate in good faith... and wait for the time to expire" and then treat the worker however the employer deems fit.
"I have filed an application to the Privy Council seeking to have the matter reviewed as a matter of urgency," Ferguson said.

Background
The hotel and the workers entered an industrial agreement in 2002. That agreement, which was registered, expired in 2006. Under the agreement, workers were entitled to Christmas payments and a ham or turkey of a specified size. After the expiration of the 2002 agreement, the hotel continued to pay the Christmas payments and give the hams and turkeys until 2010. The hotel said these payments were "ex gratia" and were given "in the interest of maintaining good industrial relations".
Beginning in 2011, the hotel varied the payments from what had been agreed in the industrial agreement. No payment was made in 2011: instead, a voucher was given. In 2012 and 2013, payments were given but they were less than agreed to in the industrial agreement. In both years, vouchers were also given.
The union - and a number of workers - sued the hotel, claiming that this was unilateral action by the hotel that constituted a breach of the employment contract.
Supreme Court Justice Hartman Longley agreed, referring in his February 2014 ruling to the continuing practice in The Bahamas that the terms of an expired registered industrial agreement become part of the terms of employment of the individual worker. He ruled that accordingly, the employees were entitled to the Christmas payments and the hams and turkeys, and that not paying them was a breach of the individual employment contract of the workers.
Last week, the Court of Appeal set aside Longley's ruling.

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