The Hon. Osbourne Fleming, Chief Minister and Minister of Labour, met today with a delegation led by Mr. Juan Thomas and the Hon. Hubert Hughes, representing 53 workers from the Dominican Republic, who have been employed on the Temenos-St. Regis Retreat and Golf Club’s construction project.  Also attending were the Chief Minister’s ministerial colleagues along with officials from the Labour and the Immigration Departments, government advisers and the government Liaison Officer to the project.  Three senior managers from Flag Luxury Properties (Anguilla) LLC (Flag), Mr. Fritz Smith, Mr. Tony Scatliffe and Mr. Rosmund Davis, represented Flag at the meeting. 

Flag, during the period October to December 2006, in line with Government’s policy, set up a specific Transition Team to ensure continuity of employment and payment of the wages of the Anguillian and Caribbean construction workers employed by the general contractor Hensel Phelps through Bennett’s Construction, serving as a construction labour broker, supplying construction labour required for the project.  Flag did the same for the employees of independent subcontractors working along with Hensel Phelps. 

Flag Luxury Properties (Anguilla) LLC (Flag), in a letter dated Friday, 19th January 2007, notified Mr. Juan Thomas of the Quarter that with effect from Monday, 22 January, Flag would no longer assume responsibility for payment of the wages of 53 construction workers under his control, nationals of the Dominican Republic, employed on the project.  The letter advised Mr. Thomas that Flag was in the process of transitioning all (construction) works from Flag to ASHTROM. 

Ashtrom was initially contracted to construct the hotel accommodation units and central facilities for a fixed price, following termination of Flag’s cost plus contract with Hensel Phelps.  Following the failure of joint efforts by Flag and the Government Transition Team to secure local contractors, Flag and Ashtrom have been negotiating terms for Ashtrom to take over management of the works reserved for implementation by Anguillian and Caribbean construction workers.  Those negotiations were concluded recently with an agreement necessitating the immediate transitioning of direct responsibility for the implementation of all works from Flag to Ashtrom.  Flag’s letter to Mr. Thomas followed the signing of the variation in Ashtrom’s contract making them general contractors responsible for the execution of the works to be performed by the Anguillian and Caribbean workers. 

Mr. Thomas and Mr. Hughes expressed concern and disagreement on behalf of the affected workers with Flag’s decision to terminate (direct) responsibility for employing and paying them.  The Flag representatives explained Flag’s position and the reasons for the decision.  They pointed out that what had in fact happened was that Flag had handed over three buildings to ASHTROM and in doing so Flag had ceased work on these buildings. The workers were then free to negotiate contracts with ASHTROM to continue the work on the project. Mr. Thomas had been informally advised that he should meet with Ashtrom to negotiate additional works and he may then select members for his construction workforce from among the affected workers as he sees fit. They further advised that other subcontractors as well may recruit from among those workers if they so desire.    

Questions of the work permit and immigration status of the workers concerned were raised as well as concerns about the lack of the required technical skills and competence on the part of some of the workers employed as masons and carpenters. 

The Government recognized that various challenges would be presented as a result of the decision of Flag to transition from a cost plus contract with Hensen Phelps to a fixed price contract with Ashtrom on the hotel manor house and hotel accommodation units and fixed price subcontracts on the works to be performed by subcontractors using Anguillian and Caribbean labour. 

The meeting concluded with the Government, Flag and the representatives of the affected workers agreeing that: 

Mr. Juan Thomas would seek by Friday, January 26, 2007 to negotiate for additional  construction works with Ashtrom  at fixed prices and would select as he sees fit persons from the list of affected workers for his construction workforce to carry out the subcontracts;
The 53 affected workers are to stay away from and desist from entering the Flag construction site;
Mr. Thomas is to cooperate with and assist the Labour and the Immigration Departments to ensure that their records are fully updated with information on the work permit status and the immigration status of the affected workers, their current addresses in Anguilla and telephone and person contacts;
All workers at Flag, Viceroy and other establishments employing large numbers of immigrant workers will shortly be required to produce their passports to the Immigration Department;
Affected workers with resident stamps and permanent residence certificates working without work permits will be required to be on work permits and their employers will be facilitated in the processing of applications for work permits for those they hire as members of their work crews;
Affected workers not selected by any of the subcontractors would be required to return home to the Dominican Republic. The cost of their return to the Dominican Republic is already provided for in their work permit arrangements as required by the labour law.

The Government of Anguilla would like to advise all contractors and other employers that it will shortly be publishing strict guidelines on the hiring of workers from outside of Anguilla as well as the terms of their engagement