Sandals Royal Bahamian resort (photo: YouTube).
NASSAU, Bahamas--A debilitating stomach virus has spread like wildfire through the Sandals Royal Bahamian resort in Nassau, blitzing guests and staff members alike with severe vomiting, abdominal pains and diarrhoea, in what some have described as the worst viral outbreak to occur on a cruise ship or a resort facility in the Bahamas to date.
According to the Ministry of Health, some 100 guests and visitors were admitted to hospital, experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.
The Ministry of Health and the Department of Environmental Health were dispatched to the property in an attempt to determine the exact cause of the illness and how to contain the spread to other guests and staff members.
Travel and hotel review and booking website TripAdvisor made mention of the illness through its visitor reviews portal over the last week.
One recent guest wrote on August 14: “On our last day there both myself and my husband began to feel really sick and crappy. He had a nagging stomach ache and my head was pounding for hours and my stomach was hurting. After we returned home I got extremely sick with head to toe body aches, stomach cramps, migraines, sore throat and diarrhea! I had no clue something was going around until I read some of the reviews! I’m still not feeling 100 percent yet! With all this being said, we will never visit this location again …”
Another guest wrote on August 13 that Sandals should have made mention of the stomach virus outbreak, as they now understand that the outbreak was already well into its peak-spread at the time of their visit: “A virus rapidly spread throughout the resort, which Sandals should have been forthcoming about. We were wondering why the pool felt empty with the resort being 100 percent occupied. Then we kept seeing nurses or doctors going to rooms with Gatorade. Finally, one employee said 40 percent of the resort had a virus, which my wife and I both ended up getting which lasted 36-48 hours. The resort should have slid a notification under all hotel rooms explaining the type of virus, symptoms, etc. They did hire a cleaning crew who we saw sanitizing all railings and hand sanitizer was everywhere, but the lack of notification seemed like they were just trying to cover it up quickly and pass it off like no big deal.”
Speaking to Caribbean News Now, Bahamas Hotel Maintenance and Allied Workers Union (BHMAWU) president Donnell Ferguson said her members at the Sandals Royal Bahamian property had been put in harm’s way by the management and something dangerous and life threatening could have been mitigated by the union if managerial staff had been diligent and vigilant in reporting warning signs through proper communication channels and mechanisms.
The BHMAWU said it was working overtime to assist staff and visitors alike during the outbreak.
“The union is willing to assist with anything the management at Sandals wishes them to help coordinate during this crisis to ensure that the workers are safe, visitors are happy and that we can mitigate against issues like this in the future,” Ferguson said.
The relationship between Sandals and the BHMAWU has been acrimonious at best, including claims of union busting by Sandals along with arrests and criminal charges, during eight years of litigation up to the Privy Council and back, culminating in the union being legally recognised as the collective bargaining agent and union for Sandals employees.
Ferguson told Caribbean News Now that the union had delivered a copy of its draft industrial agreement on May 23, 2018, to West Bay Management Limited (WBML), the company under which Sandals Royal Bahamian operates in the Bahamas. However, the company’s lawyers have only now come back with their proposed changes to the draft agreement – changes she and her union find unacceptable and falling short of what is required by law and the various court rulings.
Nonetheless, she believes it is in the best interests of her members and all parties concerned to start working for Sandals employees now with what they have.
While the full strength of the union is still a way off, considering that the industrial agreement is in its infancy, Ferguson said the main steps now were to ensure that all Sandals employees have full health and accident insurance moving forward, in addition to ensuring that people affected by the stomach virus, both staff and visitors, get the full support of her union and its members. ~ Caribbean News Now! ~
