BUSINESSMEN say they are feeling the squeeze from the lockdowns, with some saying it could force them into layoffs and salary cuts, if their businesses even continue. Chris Berry, executive chairman of Mayberry Investments — a brokerage house — tweeted the sentiments on Monday while Michael Ammar Jr, director of Ammar’s — a Kingston-based retailer of apparel, accessories and household goods — said the reality is now on the front burner for him.

Berry, in a terse tweet on Monday last, wrote “layoffs and salary cuts will start soon if these lockdowns continue”, without expounding. Efforts to get further comments from him failed. Calls to his cellphone went unanswered.

However, Ammar was forthcoming in his assessment of how the recent lockdowns, which were implemented last week and continue into this week after a four-day break, have affected his company. “This set of lockdowns are the most devastating economic thing to ever happen to this company. More than hurricanes, more than social upheavals, more than anything. It has come at the end of month August, which is suppose to be the second-busiest month for people in the apparel business. We have lost four full days and one half-day. It has totally, totally, totally devastated our cashflow. It has come at the time of year when we are suppose to be taking in lots of cash and also paying out lots of cash. And what has happened is that we are unable to meet our obligations and basically, a lot of us are almost flying on one wing now. I have no idea how we are going to get out of this mess but I think it is one of the most misguided things that could have ever been done, to do it at this time,” he said.

His sentiments were shared by a prominent businessman who requested anonymity to discuss the matter openly. The businessman also added, “I can tell you, the majority of the private sector is not paying their workers for the lockdown days. I know that a lot of the private sector has cut salaries again.” Most companies slashed salaries for up to four months last year to help weather cashflow issues, but restored them after.

Ammar said he was not at that stage yet but said it’s something “we are going to have to do, because we don’t have the cash to meet those obligations, so it’s gonna to come to that. We already did it last year by working with our team…it is definitely something that is on the front burner now because this [lockdown] left us in a really, really, really bad situation. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. If it had happened in September, we could have stomached it, or October; but August is the second most important month of the year for us”. The most important month for the retail sector is December.

He said conversations he’s had with his colleague businessmen show they are having the same thoughts. “We are all basically experiencing the same thing and we are very upset, because it didn’t have to come to this,” Ammar reasoned. The businessman who requested anonymity went further, “we are on the borderline of social unrest. I know the situation is very tense”.

Ammar, who is also a member of the entertainment fraternity, was scathing about the decision to open the sector in July, indicating that he believes it contributed to the current spike in COVID-19 cases. “There’s no way that the entertainment industry should have been allowed to open in July. I am the managing partner of Bacchanal Jamaica; I have not opened Bacchanal for two years, so I know the pain that the industry is going through, but it was isolated to that industry. What it has caused now is for the entire country to be suffering because of that poor decision. And the lockdown is not the way to solve it because, as you can see, the cases are going up everyday.” Since the lockdown started just over a week ago the country has recorded close to 6,000 new cases of the coronavirus and more than 120 deaths. Jacquiline Bisasor McKenzie, Jamaica’s chief medical officer, said the current spike in cases is expected to peak early this month, before plateauing ahead of trending down.

For Ammar, the fix for the rising cases is not lockdowns. “The Government needs to start policing the things that they say they are gonna do,” he contended before adding, “public transport is now one of the main spreaders of this thing — every bus, every taxi, hardly anybody has on their mask. The Government needs to go out and enforce it. It’s not hard to do. Stop the bus, take off the people, arrest the driver, seize the bus. After a couple days you would see how quickly it sort itself out.” He continued, “Closing down early only creates panic and mayhem. Have you ever seen the rush out of Kingston on a Saturday afternoon or [during the week] when they put in the early curfew?” he asked. “It’s like a bottleneck — just trying to push the same amount of water through a smaller area — and that just causes congestion and spreads the thing. On top of it, there are still illegal entertainments and gatherings going on. It’s okay to have your little corner gatherings and that kind of stuff, but when you get these huge events where people just totally, totally don’t care about wearing a mask and thing,” he said as his voice trailed off into a sigh.

He called for the Government to put penalties in place for those who choose not to be vaccinated, arguing that the country and businesses cannot continue to be held to ransom by them, “Because I don’t see why all of us that have been vaccinated, and are killing ourselves to keep our businesses open and keep our staff paid and employed, should be suffering because other people don’t want to follow the rules. And I know that’s the common sentiment across a wide section of the business sector. People don’t say it, but I’ve had it. I don’t care. I am willing to say it. You can write it, you can quote me, I don’t care.”

He said he believes the Government had done a better job in handling the pandemic than most countries up to July but made a serious error in opening up the entertainment sector, before reflecting, “the fix for it is an even worse error, because it’s going to cripple the economy and it’s going to come right back and bite the same Government in the butt — and I am sure that is not what they want. Jamaica is on a path to recovery, we need to stay on that path, so we can’t continue to do these left, right swings. “