Labour attorney Obie Ferguson on Sunday claimed that employees who were recently terminated from a Baha Mar owned hotel on Cable Beach have been "grossly under-compensated".

Mr. Ferguson said in at least one instance, an employee who had worked at the Nassau Wyndham Beach Resort 25 years had been under-compensated by at least $25,000.

About two weeks ago 47 employees were terminated from the Wyndham Nassau Resort, most of them from the hotel?s housekeeping department.

The employees claim that they have not been properly compensated and that the terms of their employment were breached when they were made redundant.

Their lawyer, Mr. Ferguson said he had set up a meeting with the terminated employees for Monday during which time he would discuss legal recourses open to them.

The labour lawyer said the employees could choose to have their matters against Baha Mar heard at the Industrial Tribunal or in the Supreme Court.

"I will discuss with them the benefits of having the matters heard in each court and let them decide what is best for them," he said.

Mr. Ferguson revealed following the meeting with the axed employees that he planned to meet with Baha Mar executives to demand that they comply with the law and pay the employees what they are rightfully owed.

As Mr. Ferguson explained in the case of one woman, "Under section 4 of the Employment Act she should have gotten at least about 30,000, but what the hotel did was this: it only paid her $5,000."

He indicated that, "the Act clearly states that employers cannot contract out of the Employment Act. This means, say you are my employer and I your employee, you just can not sign out of vacation pay or overtime pay if I am entitled to such."

The labour attorney went on to say that, employers couldn?t sign out of contracts because they have no authority to do so. There are certain things like vacation pay and overtime, which employers, cannot sign out of.

They must at least comply with the minimum of what that Act provides. And so, the employee in this case should have been entitled under section 4 to at least 12 months pay; that is to say, 12 months including her gratuity, her meals and all the other benefits to which she was entitled.

Mr. Ferguson further explained that the employee was paid based on her regular salary. "For example, let?s say she was making $150.00 per week. Her gratuities would have brought that up to $500 to $700 a week.

This would mean ? he noted- that under the law she would have been paid up to $500 or $700 a week because under the law the gratuity falls under part of wages. You cannot pay an employee less than the law provides.

He also claimed that what they had done was to persuade these persons to sign releases, not knowing the full consequences of such releases.

The fact of the matter is that once the release has been signed, that brings the matter to an end. In essence, the effect of the release is that once you sign, you cannot bring a further action against the employer. We have asked workers not to sign such releases.

Mr. Ferguson concluded that, "Even though the employees had signed ?releases? we are of the view that they are not legal and binding since the law was breached as far as compensation is concerned," he said. "That is an argument we will make."

Baha Mar?s Vice-president of External Affairs and Communications Roberts Sands said the redundancies were in "full accordance with the industrial agreement with Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union and the labour laws.

By NAVARDO SAUNDERS