Bad blood continues to boil between staff and management at controversy-plagued Coco Reef as the hotel has begun laying off employees and cutting back on working hours citing low occupancy levels.

According to an internal memo from the hotel leaked to The Royal Gazette, layoffs began on July 31 but staff members say they are not buying the rationale they have been given for the cutbacks.

“This is high season,” one employee said. “You don't lay off in the high season...

“And what will happen when the slow season comes? This is the time to make the money.”

But Coco Reef general manager Andrea Jennings said yesterday the hotel plans to close for the off-season to construct guest cottages on the property.

She said the layoffs currently underway do not constitute staff being permanently released from positions.

The hotel is simply requesting workers not to come to work for two or three days, she said, or until the hotel comes out of the occupancy troughs.

“We need to prepare staff financially ... for the peaks and troughs,” Ms Jennings said.

Work at Coco Reef will be seasonal this year at best, she added, as the hotel will be closed for the off-season again this winter as it continues physical upgrades.

When staff are hired they are all informed that the jobs are seasonal, Ms Jennings said.

The hotel will be closing on November 30 for the “construction, not renovation” of new guest cottages on the property.

The number of cottages to be built has not yet been determined but Ms Jennings said they would be located “in the gardens, around the garden area”.

The hotel will also be building a beach bar in the off-season.

Yesterday staff members told The Royal Gazette they have been given very little information on what is happening at the hotel - they don't know how long layoffs will last or how long the hotel will be closed.

“Please be advised that due to the low occupancy forecast for the rest of the year, we have to start the layoff process,” the memo to hotel department heads stated. “The layoff will continue until the hotel closes on November 30, 2004.”

One employee said of the memo: “That's ALL the information that has been passed on to the employees.”

“Plus, it raises the question. If you can't fill a South Shore beach-front hotel during the month of August, when can you?”