MONTEGO BAY, St James — Some 35 employees of Unique Vacations Limited (UVL) were the toast of the company’s 2020 awards, hosted at the Sandals Montego Bay Convention Centre during a glitzy ceremony on Saturday night.

UVL is a novel call centre, which is the global representative for Sandals and Beaches resorts. It handles bookings and general customer service for the properties.

In a virtual message, Sandals Resorts International Executive Chairman Adam Stewart, who expressed regret for his absence, hailed the workers for their unflinching efforts, particularly during the novel coronavirus pandemic, which brought the tourism sector to a standstill.

“Tonight [Saturday night] is a celebration. Tonight is all about you and the efforts that you have put in over the last 19 months to get us to where we are. We are going to celebrate customer service, we are going to celebrate sales, but we are overall going to celebrate you as incredible individuals,” Stewart remarked.

“I want to thank you for all the sacrifices you made over the last 19 months in particular to get us to this point.”

He noted that forever etched in his memory is a lesson from his father, founder of Sandals International, the late Gordon “Butch” Stewart, who always drilled home the point that “our call centres are the heartbeat of the company.”

“I will never forget that! You guys are a critical piece of making this machine known as Sandals Resorts International work. So have a fabulous time tonight. I am so sorry I can’t be there. I am up in the cold selling sunshine trying to play my part. We love you, we see you soon, have a great time, be safe. I am looking forward to everything ahead. You guys are rock stars,” Stewart told the awardees.

Leezo Wallace, director of call centre operations at UVL, also lauded the awardees for going the extra mile.

“Despite the struggles of the [coronavirus] pandemic you guys really came out and went above and beyond the call of duty,” said Wallace.

And speaking with the Jamaica Observer West, Wallace also explained that some of the awardees were the creme de la creme in sales and customer service “in a pandemic year”.

“Most of them were doing double shifts, working on their days off. As you can imagine during the time, call volumes went up. Everybody was calling to service their bookings. And these guys (awardees), they stepped up,” he explained.

Among the awardees were Melony Duhaney, who copped the award for Employee of the Year 2020; Supervisor of the Year went to Charmaine McFarlane; Tricia Simms copped the Director’s Award, while Stacy Ann McFarlane and Tremaine Forrester walked away with the Managers of the Year awards.