Carty warns hotel outsourcing can leave workers without severance

By Tahna Weston
tahna.weston@antiguaobserver.com
Workers at major hotels in Antigua and Barbuda could be left without severance pay when smaller companies hired to manage staff fail, Industrial Relations Consultant Anderson Carty has warned.
Carty, speaking recently on the Voice of the People programme, said almost all major hotels in Antigua and Barbuda use smaller companies to manage their staff.
He said workers can be left without severance when those smaller companies fail.
“Those companies are usually formed without any assets whatsoever. They have no assets. They hire the employees. They get sums of money to deal with the overheads. At the end of the day, they are responsible primarily for payment of severance if that smaller entity goes bust.
“There is no obligation in law on the larger entity, the international company or the company for whose benefit they do business. There’s no obligation placed on them by law,” Carty said.
He said the problem is real and continues to affect workers.
Carty said the government has a responsibility to the people of Antigua and Barbuda and should address the issue urgently to protect workers.
“They were voted into office. They were given a mandate. That mandate is to protect us, to protect all the employees.
“The prime minister has spoken repeatedly about it, but to date, I’m not aware that he and his cabinet have done anything whatsoever to address that issue,” Carty said.
He said the prime minister has promised to deal with the matter and called on him to do so.