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Sandals Barbados Withhold Stipend

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Sandals Butch Stewart
Sandals Butch Stewart

It has been brought to the attention of BU that Sandals Barbados has been training prospective employees for 10 weeks, 8 hours per day, 5 days a week WITHOUT paying them a stipend to pay bus fare or buy a sweet drink. BU understand they do get a free lunch! To rub salt in the wound there is no guarantee the prospective employees will be recruited when the training is completed.

The big question for the BU intelligentsia is whether this is legal under the laws of Barbados.

Sandals management personnel have been featured in the media this week preaching the successes of Sandals Barbados since the launch. Why must Barbadians always be made to lay prostrate before foreigners and taken advantage of.

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177 responses to “Sandals Barbados Withhold Stipend”

  1. ac Avatar
    ac

    @ Gazer No i cannot see the difference! maybe it is your propensity to see an adult student as an employee that have blinded your sense of vision

  2. TheGazer Avatar
    TheGazer

    @islandgal
    Surely, you will concede that the person who does 10 weeks (of 40 hours each without) the possibility of getting a job is being taken advantage of. Couldn’t the trainers have identified these ‘unsuitable’ candidates much earlier and release them so that they can seek work elsewhere. Do yo realize that having five such candidates is equivalent to having a person-year of free labor.

    Is there a point where the enthusiasm of the worker and the willingness of the employer to keep them on borders on or become exploitation? Some folks will do their utmost to seek gainful employment, and some employers will abuse that willingness to be employed.

    In the ideal world your approach is admirable, but in the real world it open up an employee to exploitation.

  3. TheGazer Avatar
    TheGazer

    Bushie has a way of keeping it short sweet and to the point.

  4. ac Avatar
    ac

    If Butch Stewart is using his Resources to train people for further employment in his business there is no law that would give him a wrong and demand he pays the trainees whether in barbados bangladesh or hawai
    And if after the training the trainee refused to be an employee of Sandals the trainee have every right to do so and Butch cannot demand any financial stipends from the trainee as money owed

  5. David Avatar
    David

    There is NO reputable company in Barbados with internship or summer programs who do not pay for services rendered. It has been the Bajan way. We have Sandals who have received a wash pan of concessions who now want to rape us some more, rape with consent.

  6. ac Avatar
    ac

    @ Gazer to make it short and sweet visit Webster and look for the meaning of ” employee” and trainee’ and that is where you would be sufficiently and effectively guided in your pronunciations

  7. Exclaimer Avatar
    Exclaimer

    Slightly off message but relevant!

    The scandal of Sandals recruitment policy does not surprise me. However take a look at what is going on in the UK where Tesco the largest retailer in the UK has just been criticised for delaying payment to some of her suppliers by up to two years!

    I wonder if Sandals pays, promptly, her suppliers?

    Large companies have a disrespect for anything that stands in their way of making profit. The days of laissez-faire where such companies continue to abuse the rights of our citizens, our society and our environment must be ended.

    ” Tesco delayed payments to suppliers to boost profits, watchdog finds
    Groceries code adjudicator finds supermarket failed to pay back multi-million pound sums owed for up to two years, but regulator is unable to levy fine ”

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/26/tesco-ordered-change-deal-suppliers

  8. David Avatar
    David

    The other matter we have to investigate about Sandals is how much of the reservation dollar reached Barbados jurisdiction. The last time Butch was asked this question he sought to embarrass the ‘askee’.

  9. ac Avatar
    ac

    look ac understand the principle attached to this issue ….however a principle not guided by law any
    The fact being that there are companies who make certain allowances but also remember that these companies have hidden formulas/methods of recovery for their financial resources used in their training programs which comes out of the hired trainee pocket one of which can be less working hours
    What society must under stand that corporate management first goal is profitability and there are no good guys or right vs wrong
    Sandals over the years have been one of the few brands that have employed many blacks and have pursued the carribbean interest with favourabilty therefore on that scorecard i am willing to give Sandals the benefit of doubt based upon their interest in pursuing a world class name for things Carribbean.

  10. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    What is funny is that everyone thinks these people are on the same page. Some are definitely wanting a career ,some are filling in time till something better comes by some just wanted to see the inside of sandals . Every circumstance is different. Yet there are some who want to see the worst cry racism ,elitism colonialism etc. but it may be something as simple as someone says something off the cuff to a person not even there and that person with an agenda runs with it. Where are your newspapers, your govt your unionists leading the charge, maybe they are a little smarter than most.
    The pommarine programs have 500 applicants for 80 spots, the fees run the gamut from hundreds to thousands and it is run 24 /7 british aid is used to train waiters for billionaires yet there seems to be a lot of belly aching about sandals picking up some of that slack and giving some of those declined an opportunity. Not surprising the same people probably think that not being allowed cell phones on site is a greedy employer as well.

  11. David Avatar
    David

    @lawson

    Continue to trivialize this matter, we are a little black island republic after all. What happens in Canada.?

  12. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    tell the people how the Pommarine works, aid used worked 24 /7 and charged school fees and how this compares to sandals I like others would like to know

  13. ac Avatar
    ac

    @ Gazer

    United STATES LABOR LAW GUIDELINES FOR Internship and trainee programs irrespective to working environment ( and barbados being a member of the ILO )

    FACTS

    Similar To An Education Environment And The Primary Beneficiary Of The Activity

    In general, the more an internship program is structured around a classroom or academic experience as opposed to the employer’s actual operations, the more likely the internship will be viewed as an extension of the individual’s educational experience (this often occurs where a college or university exercises oversight over the internship program and provides educational credit). The more the internship provides the individual with skills that can be used in multiple employment settings, as opposed to skills particular to one employer’s operation, the more likely the intern would be viewed as receiving training. Under these circumstances the intern does not perform the routine work of the business on a regular and recurring basis, and the business is not dependent upon the work of the intern. On the other hand, if the interns are engaged in the operations of the employer or are performing productive work (for example, filing, performing other clerical work, or assisting customers), then the fact that they may be receiving some benefits in the form of a new skill or improved work habits will not exclude them from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime requirements because the employer benefits from the interns’ work.

    Read with understanding and clarity where necessary specifications are required for benefits unless undertaken by the trainee

    Are you and those who are requesting stipends for the Sandals trainee in full acknowlegment of any such requirements or such demands by Sandals towards the trainees

  14. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    The Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP) offers a diploma in “Mechanical Engineering.” Some graduates of this course, for example, were given JOB ATTACHMENTS at UCAL, WITH PAY, and were subsequently hired. Unfortunately, last year, due to financial constraints caused primarily by the Transport Board not paying UCAL funds due, management had to “lay off” some of these employees. They were readily offered jobs by the TB and Trans Tech Inc.

    If I were to follow the “logic” of “Island Gal” and the legion of demons, the SJPP, or by extension the Barbados Vocational Training Board, should scrap their model of providing training and job attachments and adopt a Sandals model, whereby those institutions would provide training and a certificate only, and encourage those organizations providing attachments to allow course graduates to train on the job, free of cost.

    Additionally, if some are arguing Sandals is providing training, which in itself is not a bad thing, at the end of training, are these apprentices awarded a CERTIFICATE of COMPLETION, verifying they have successfully completed, for example, 4 month’s training as a “waitress.”

    Any individual seeking a job in the hospitality industry would need to include in their CV, information relative to prior training or qualifications awarded to make them more eligible for a job. So can they say, “I was trained at Sandals,” and do not have any substantiating evidence, then they are wasting time.

    If they are given “acknowledgement of training awards” in this case, then it begs the following questions:

    1) Is Sandals registered as a hospitality learning institution, similar to Pom Marine?
    2) Are these training courses in compliance with the institutional accreditation standards as outlined by The Barbados Accreditation Council (BAC)?
    3) If certificates are indeed awarded, were these “qualifications” ACCREDITED by the BAC?

    What standards are we trying to set in Barbados if we allow a “Palacio Nazarenas” or “Baihua” hotel to set up shop and ignore the exploitation of unemployed Barbadians all for the sake of saying we have a luxury resort on the island?

    The only reason those ac idiots are trying to defend Butch and Sandals, (and unsuccessfully in so doing) is to protect the hotel from criticism, based solely on the generous tax concessions this DLP administration offered Butch and his Jamaican managers. Perhaps it’s a matter of ignorance in Island Gal’s case.

    Ah wonder if Chris and Delisle gine include these “workers” in the statistics when compiling the next unemployment figures?

  15. ac Avatar
    ac

    rollin my eyes

    like comparing apples and oranges oh well and the beat goes on

  16. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. Yours, as usual is a weak argument.

    It is STUPID to compare the United States labour laws and ILO, or imply they are one “entity,” and juxtapose it with Barbados as being a member of the ILO.

    Your comment would have merit IF Barbados was an American state, whereby the labour laws would be applicable.

  17. David Avatar
    David

    @lawson

    Don’t be a JA. The PomMarine Hotel is setup to give students hands on training as part of the BCC hotel management training for young people, this is a program heavily subsidized by government.

    http://www.pommarine.com/inhos.asp

  18. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    HaHa idiots … no they probably aren’t registered for foreign aid or charge trainees fees to work 24/7 like the pommarine, so you are saying any training is not worth while unless a certificate is attached??????? I can picture you coming through the door ….. Honey I can Phuck you now, I have my sex education certificate lol
    All this because a person may or may not have been given a sweet drink.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    @lawson

    You are morphing into a real JA. The term sweet drink and lunch money is one Bajans understand. It is not meant to be translated literally.

    JA

  20. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    I suspect this “lawson” character is Caucasian……. Then it’s understandable why he would support exploitation of unemployed Black people.

  21. ac Avatar
    ac

    So just as stupid as your analogy in comparing a govt schoolprogram that is subsidized by taxpayers monies and a private company whose revenues are derived by sales

    The Fact being that the labour Laws of the USA are in conjunction to barbados labour laws and are in effect co-joined to ILO rules and practices

    You need to go do your homework instead of over injecting your political bile as fact

  22. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    Only a white idiot would want us black people to believe an individual could apply for a job and in his/her application state: “I had training at Sandals,” without having anything to substantiate that claim. So the prospective employer should accept “word of mouth.”

    What a jackass.

  23. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Why David because I don’t agree with the point of view that everything that sandals does is bad. When I was working in the mother of a future provincial premiers house I told her tell your son everything the other party does isn’t wrong , she said but he is the official opposition, I said that doesn’t mean a good idea has to be bad. Most people think like me that is why people hate politics.
    I honestly would like to hear from someone taking the course how bad they are treated
    You are right I don’t understand all the nuances of your language, like when someone says that is 100 dollars I honestly think they mean that is 100 dollars not the starting point of negotiation

  24. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    AC, you are an ass. Although the institutions involved are different, the CONCEPT is SIMILAR.

    The problem with you is you don’t think or reason about anything that is not within the confines of the DLP’s website.

    How are Barbados’ labour laws in conjunction with USA labour laws? It’s okay for you, as usual, to write a lot of GENERALIZED INCOHERENT RHETORIC, hoping BU accepts as FACT, without PRESENTING any SUBSTANTIATING EVIDENCE.

    SURELY IF YOU HAD DONE YOUR HOME WORK, YOU WOULD HAVE POSTED THE RELEVANT EVIDENCE.

  25. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Artaxerxes this is why your argument fails because you bring racism into it and it becomes just noise. Not for one second have you thought some of those people doing the course were white. Get that monkey off your back and argue a point on its merits not your perceived racial bias. For some reason you think all of us white people love making black people step and fetch, and get a real high in making them do it Fortunately.. you again are wrong

  26. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David January 31, 2016 at 9:30 AM
    “…. The PomMarine Hotel is setup to give students hands on training as part of the BCC hotel management training for young people, this is a program heavily subsidized by government.”

    So what role is Sandals playing in all of this?
    I can understand if the on-hands training Sandals is providing free of any labour cost to them is an extension to the PomMarine training programme in the form of a work attachment programme for the trainees.

    Is it or is it not a work attachment arranged with Sandals, with Pommarine the main training provider? If it is not a work attachment component for those enrolled in the PomMarine programme then there is some justification to refer to it as exploiting unemployed Bajans on the cheap. No different from the days of slavery when blacks laboured daily for nothing but food and white indentured labourers for their promised freedom from serfdom.

    Now where have those billions of hardworking taxpayers’ dollars invested in “educating” Bajans gone?
    Tourism, far from being the exotic niche market to earn foreign exchange to maintain the lifestyle of the local Faberge class, has now replaced the dead King Sugar industry with its history of labour exploitation and serfdom.

  27. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    In some jurisdictions in CANADA.

    “Employers are required to pay for the training an employee needs in order to learn how to do their job at the employer’s business. Training directed by the employer, or on the employer’s behalf, which is related to performing the employment duties the employee has been hired to do is considered work. For example, an employee must be paid while he or she is being trained how to do such things as use tools and equipment, follow procedures in the workplace, assist customers and handle money and other forms of payment.”

  28. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    You should no better, it is a practical. Many programs offered by educational institutions have a practical component.

  29. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    In canada we had programs and may still where the govt paid or subsidizes employers to take people on and show them a trade ,we have programs where schools send people out to the workforce for a couple of weeks during the school year in the trade they are in to get on site experience with no pay. Just to see if this is really what they want. If the pommarine could accept all applicants this would be moot.

  30. ac Avatar
    ac

    Artexeres ac might be an ass but International labour laws are also an ASS Right ?
    You believe because you can use a political measuring stick and duct tape to apply reasoning that makes you right . Wrong ! that is where you are being lead by the rear end instead of the front end which also make you an ass
    Go read the Labour laws that is where your guidance would be intellectualize on employees vs trainee rights
    I done wid you everything for you is DLP pottage sore loser

  31. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    I bet a Sandals “manager” will get recognized for running a “cost effective” training program.

  32. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    @ AC

    where in my contribution is there any evidence of using a “political measuring stick?” There is none on BU more political than you.

    You have failed to convince BU about the labour laws, by refusing to bring evidence to substantiate your claim. Telling me to read the labour laws is a “cop out.”

    @ lawson

    I don’t have any “monkey on my back,” because I do not care anything about white people…. simple. You are a disingenuous bunch.

  33. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David January 31, 2016 at 10:10 AM

    If I knew “better” I would not be asking for clarification.
    The question still stands: Is the Sandals’ “on the job training programme” part of the POmMarine Certification equivalent to National Vocation Qualifications (NVQ’s)?

    Other than that, it can only be described of exploitation of the unemployed on the very cheap.
    Why not hire (for minimum pay) the preferred ones based on standard interview techniques applied and the candidates’ performance with the clear understanding that after 3 to 6 months a decision will definitely be made whether those temporarily engaged could have a future with the organization?

  34. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    There is no evidence that Sandals is working with the PomMorine.

  35. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    @ David
    Perhaps Sandals was given this labour concession as part of the package given by government. It is highly irregular to say the least. It should have been paid training, that way no one would be taken advantage of if they did not meet the company’s expectations at the end of the training period and were not hired.

  36. David Avatar
    David

    @Heather

    Look who is in the news:

    http://www.loopnewsbarbados.com/content/sandals-responds-allegations-it-bought-favours-turks-caicos#.Vq2mag5G-5U.facebook

  37. ac Avatar
    ac

    Sir not only have i provided evidence but evidence where the USA supreme Court weighed in on the issue in a land mark ruling

  38. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David,

    ” All those payments were made without the knowledge or consent of the principals of Sandals.”

    In the words of another great Jamaican Shaggy…..wasn’t me. lol

  39. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    “”Indeed, the incident triggered a Group-wide review of the internal controls with the organisation and during the course of that exercise further instances of irregularities were discovered. One such discovery culminated in the criminal prosecution in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court in Jamaica of Dr. Jeffrey Pyne, former Managing Director of Gorstew Limited the Sandals Treasurer, Patrick Lynch and Catherine Barber, both former Senior Executives affiliated with the Group, regarding violation of the ATL/Sandals Pension Fund, which is still the subject of Court proceedings.”

    …..wasn’t me….

  40. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    You guys are trying to have it both ways you are complaining because some people didn’t get paid…now you are complaining because some guys did get paid. Was just down on the canal watching west Indians trying to skate….. it is possible to laugh and cry at the same time.
    Antaraxes at least your honest, misguided but honest

  41. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ lawson,

    I have seen white Canadians trying to skate. Nobody is born with the ability to skate at first try.

  42. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Lawson….I am so glad it caught up with you…lol. you know full well Stewart of Sandals could never go to Canada and pull that shit.

    AC. ..don’t you ever get tired of being an ssswipe.

  43. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Asswipe. ..AC..asswipe

  44. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Now all we need to find out is which beast or beasts of DBLP took money and gave Stewart of Sandals 40 years worth of concessions, it’s notvthe first time is name has been called in such or for exploiting employees or in this case non-employees, ya see, I got a Jamaican son-in-law, who would know…..and if you believe he did not bribe those bribe-ables well known for taking bribes, ask Bizzy, I got 2 bridges in Brooklyn to sell ya.

  45. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Hants Canadians come out of the womb being able to skate ski toboggan etc it is only for you and your brethren that it is a learning curve. But that is one great thing about being of the darker persuasion, when ultimately (and you will ) find yourself face first in a snow bank you are easily spotted and dragged out of that white fluffy stuff and given a hot chocolate and beaver tail to warm you up.

  46. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ lawson January 31, 2016 at 2:00 PM

    Come Lawson, stop taking the’ mick’ out of those simple black people. You know very well how much they worship your imposed god and in purely naïve aping fashion adore your race to the max. Just look at their women folk and you can see the damage you lot have done to the psyche of those poor souls.

    They are in need of serious psychological rehabilitation so give them a chance; maybe another 200 years for the damage to be undone.

    BTW Lawson, blacks take to the snow like whites to the hot sun while trying to dance rhythmically to calypso and reggae or to ‘screw’ with passion in circular motions. When you say A you have to say B or Z. Horses for courses, not so?

  47. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Miller when some of your horses get up to our minus 40 weather even they look down and go what the phuck, when we say a girl is fridgid we mean it.

  48. Retribution-things that make me go hum! Avatar
    Retribution-things that make me go hum!

    Am going to repeat myself for the benefit of ac and Lawson. and I am going to do it in caps.

    THIS RECRUITMENT POLICY IS NOT ONLY BEING UNDERTAKEN BY SANDALS BUT BY OTHER HOTELS IN BARBADOS LIKE BBR, ELEGANT GROUPS AND SB AND THE LIST GOES ON. THESE ARE FACTS!! THE WORKERS ARE NOT TEENAGERS AND YOUNG PEOPLE, THEY ARE HARD BACK MEN AND WOMEN WITH CHILDREN.

    DURING THE INTERVIEW YOU ARE TOLD YOU ARE HIRED, WHEN YOU ARE IN -THE SITUATION CHANGES TO TRAINEE PAY/STIPEND OR IN SANDALS CASE NOTHING. YOU ARE NOT ISSUED WITH A CONTRACT – THEY DELIBRATELY WITHHOLD PERTINENT DETAILS. THIS IS AGAINST THE EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS ACT.

    THESE PEOPLE ARE CROOKS AND SHOULD BE BROUGHT DOWN FOR IT.

    Be honest and transparent and you will get an honest days work!!! You get what you pay for!!

  49. ac Avatar
    ac

    @Retribution. I am confused as to what points your are making.firstly what are the requirements for trainee before coming fully employeed by Sandals.

  50. Retribution-things that make me go hum! Avatar
    Retribution-things that make me go hum!

    @ac after over 100 comments you are finally asking the right questions!

    The issues are for the last time – YOU ARE NOT TOLD UPFRONT THAT YOU WILL BE TRAINING.

    Training and Probation are not one in the same in my book.

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