by Brian Major
Last updated: 4:25 PM ET, Mon February 3, 2014
PHOTO: The Royal Bahamian Spa Resort & Offshore Island. (courtesy Sandals Resorts)
Workers at the Sandals Royal Bahamian Spa Resort & Offshore Island were preparing to strike the resort Monday afternoon, according to local press reports.
The Bahamas Hotel and Maintenance Allied Workers Union last week voted to strike, said union officials quoted in the Bahamas Tribune, although a Sandals public relations official in the Bahamas said only a fraction of the resort's workers voted for the job action.
Stephen Hector, a Sandals public relations officer in the Bahamas, said 187 of the property's 720 members voted in favor of a strike last week. He said Sandals also provided workers who wanted to vote with shuttle bus transportation to the polling center.
The strike vote was reportedly driven by disagreements between the workers and management over issues including the resort's alleged decision to fire three maids who were pregnant.
However the company takes "great exception" to that claim according to Hector. He said the three pregnant employees were among a group whose positions were made redundant during the 2008 global economic crisis, and that resort officials were unaware the workers were pregnant.
Upon learning of the pregnancies Sandals offered to reinstate the workers to their original positions, said Hector. One of the workers declined the offer and the other two later returned to work and remain employed at the resort, he added.
Sandals representatives in New York issued a statement saying, "We are happy to assure our guests that the resort will be operating as usual and their vacation will not be impacted in any way by this vote procedure or any other industrial activity."
It was unclear at press time whether or not the strike had yet taken place.
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