Despite suffering huge losses, the owners of Our Lucaya Resort in Freeport have committed to providing $3 million every month to keep more than 1,000 Bahamians employed and to cover the property's operational expenses, according to Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham.

The prime minister said this is why it disappointed him when he recently heard hotel union executives accusing Our Lucaya of treating workers unfairly during this difficult economic climate.

"In Grand Bahama, the Our Lucaya hotel is not making enough money to pay the wages of the people who are working there. I'm grateful to the Hutchison Whampoa people for continuing to fund the operations of that hotel," said Ingraham in a recent interview.

"They are sending from Hong Kong $3 million on a monthly basis to make sure the 1,000 plus workers continue to get their pay. Last month, their total income was about $1.4 million and the wages were $1.3 million.

"They had to pay the light bill and all the costs of the goods and the other operational costs, etc., and so when they are attacked and people say they are not caring, etc., it is really unfair. I'm deeply appreciative because very few people would do things like that."

Our Lucaya officials have been quiet amid criticisms from the hotel union, but the prime minister said the property is experiencing occupancy levels in the teens.

"Thank God we have people like Hutchison who own that facility," said Ingraham.

"When I heard on the radio the other day that a union official was berating the management of that hotel, my stomach churned because I know how I would have felt if I had been doing that kind of thing for a country and a people and that level of ingratitude would raise its head.

"Frankly, I don't know anybody else who would do what they are doing. Certainly, [Atlantis owner Sol Kerzner] is not going to do what they're doing. Kerzner has made it very clear his profits have gone down and so he cut his wages."

Ingraham said he found the level of ingratitude for Hutchison's actions "unbelievable," but he said the government is grateful for what Hutchison is doing.

Kerzner International recently cut its workforce at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island by 10 percent, sending home 800 workers. The layoffs came a week before Kerzner opened a new, luxury Atlantis property in Dubai, reportedly spending $20 million on the opening party.

Last week, the prime minister suggested that Kerzner International would lose some of its current concessions if it lays off any more workers. According to the company, 7,800 employees remain at the property.

Ingraham noted that layoffs are nothing new in the hotel sector.

"Some people are making it sound as though this is the first time there have been layoffs in the hotel sector," he said.

"This is standard in the industry when there's a downturn, whether it was the 70s or 80s or 90s. The most stable period was the period when we were in office between 93 and 2001 but for what happened at the World Trade Center in September of that year.

"We've never had a longer period in The Bahamas when there was not a significant adjustment in the hotel sector force. That is why the union contracts always contain clauses that deal with redundancy and what happens in terms of payments. When people say people got less money than they were supposed to get, the payments were made based upon a contract entered into between the union and the employers and it is determined how many weeks a hotel will pay and the basis upon which that payment will be made."

Last week, labor attorney Obie Ferguson filed writs in the Supreme Court against Kerzner International on behalf of a small number of workers who lost their jobs at the Atlantis.

By CANDIA DAMES