Furloughed again

Some Atlantis employees from various departments, who recently returned to work last month, were furloughed again as a result of low occupancy and other factors, according to a statement by the resort last evening.

“Atlantis, Paradise Island is not closing,” the statement read.

“The resort is experiencing lower occupancy levels for January attributed to several compounding factors, such as the lack of adequate airlift and the recent surge of COVID-19 in key markets. As a result, team members in several divisions are on temporary furlough for a few weeks.”

While Atlantis gave no numbers, The Nassau Guardian understands several food and beverage outlets have been impacted, including Carmine’s, outlets at The Cove pool as well as several at the resort’s waterpark.

The statement continued, “It is also not unusual for the resort to adjust staffing needs according to occupancy levels. Both team members and the union have been notified of this decision. Atlantis remains extremely optimistic about its February and March bookings and looks forward to The Cove reopening on February 11.”

Atlantis reopened in December 2020, welcoming 2,500 staff members for the first phase, which included the Royal Towers, Harbourside Marina as well as some restaurants and other amenities.

At that time, Atlantis President Audrey Oswell expressed concern over the insufficient airlift coming into the country.

She said, “We’re struggling with airlift and we hope that our partners that have regular service into Nassau and Paradise Island will step out and take the risk like Atlantis has.”

Last November, Oswell said it would be a “premature decision” to make any permanent redundancies at that time.

“We’ve had many employees that were furloughed, but we have not made any determination in permanent redundancies because it’s just premature,” she said.

“And I know there’s been a lot of noise out there by individuals who have expressed different opinions, but it would be premature and irresponsible of us to determine people are redundant at this point in time. We just don’t know how quickly tourism is going to rebound, which means that we don’t know how quickly we’re going to be able to return team members back to work.”

She added that all employees would be treated by the letter of the law and no one would be sold short, saying, “As soon as [tourism] does rebound, then we will be able to make a decision on how quickly we can move into phase two and ultimately phase three, which would be a full reopening of the resort. And only at that time would we be able to make a determination of who we need to return to work and who might never return to work.”

The United States, a key market for Atlantis, continues to record daily records of positive COVID-19 cases, with three states confirming a new strain, which stemmed from the United Kingdom.

The post Furloughed again appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/furloughed-again/