By NINA LAING

Freeport News Intern

A number of persons employed with New Hope Holding Company Limited have not received full sala-ries for three months, Philip Galanis, court-appointed rec-eiver for the company, told The Freeport News.

According to Galanis, all the employees have received partial salaries, but no one has been paid since December.

"There are two reasons they've not been paid," he said. "In the first instance, the company simply doesn't have the funds and secondly, the owner of the company, Preben Olesen, who owns 100 percent of the shares of the company, has not put any money into the company. More importantly, he owes the company considerable fu-nds that he has not paid."

Galanis furthered that Olesen "has made no indication whatsoever that he is prepared to pay" what is owed.

For this reason, Attorney Damian Gomez has initiated a lawsuit against Olesen, which Galanis hopes will resolve the matter more quickly.

Several employees of the Port Lucaya Marina and Grand Bahama Yacht Club have yet to receive a full paycheque, still, they report to work each day to put in their regular hours.

Galanis said that they are fully aware of the reasons they have not been paid and their dedication shows that they are hopeful for the company's recovery.

While he pointed out that the employees are Olesen's staff and not his, Galanis said he still sympathizes with them.

"I think they are certainly running out of patience, they've been very long suffering, they've suffered and persevered because... they are still working. They are doing so under very difficult circumstances. We appreciate their efforts and I have told them that. I also told them that we are trying as best we can to ameliorate this pro-cess," he said.

Meanwhile, former emp-loyees of the Ferry House Restaurant are still awaiting full compensation after being terminated in October.

Natasha Darville, former restaurant manager, said she has not been paid anything.

"They still owe me the full balance," she said. "I haven't had any compensation. Nobody has called to say well, 'maybe in a month; maybe in a day,' nothing."

She said that as far as she knows, none of the former employees have received any payment toward their severance packages either.

The mother of two, who remains unemployed, said that the situation is very frustating because the money would be very useful for her family, especially now.

"We still have our rent to pay and electricity bill. We still have groceries, we had to cut back... we have bills piling up, not paid off. I mean thousands of dollars in bills," she said. "That severence pay would do wonders for my family."

Darville's problems are among many that current employees of New Hope Holdings are facing, as they indicated in a letter addressed to the office of the Prime Minister.

The letter, dated March 9, 2010, states that some employees are experiencing "desperate" times: "persons have been locked out of their apartments, staff utillities have been cut off... children are about to be put out of private schools," and some have very little to spend on food.

Former employees of the Ferry House have filed a dispute with the Department of Labour and have met with Galanis, who, according to Darville assured them that he is doing everything possible to generate money. Darville, however, insists that nothing beneficial came out of the meeting.

Lionel Morley, who serves as a consultant for the former employees, said that Olesen and others in charge need to "step up to the plate and take care of their obligations," for the sake of the employees who have been "left defenceless."

"The employees have waited patiently and have worked with Mr. Galanis and New Hope Holdings to see how best they could be accommodating in regards to the money that is outstanding to them and to this date, it seems as if it is a non-issue.

The only person, I believe, that is being paid is Mr. Galanis because he isn't making any noise, he's the only one (that isn't) making noise. The only people who are hurting are those employees who remain and those who are off the job."

However, Galanis said that he is managing the company to the best of his abilities but the situation, at this point, is out of his hands.

"It is still very tenuous, because and unless, we can get Mr. Olesen to pay the money to the company which he owes then we're going to find ourselves in this exact situation... if the people who owe us money pay us, we'll be able to pay those who are due, what is owed to them."

Attempts to contact Olesen proved unsuccessful as The Freeport News learned that the owner is currently off the island.