14th August

Line Drawn In BEC Conflict

By Tameka Lundy

Labour Minister Shane Gibson warned on a popular radio talk show yesterday that the line has been drawn and he vowed not succumb to political pressure to award 900 Bahamas Electricity Corporation [BEC] workers almost $10,000 each or $9 million in total because they are not entitled to it.

He made the declaration on the Love 97 show Jones and Company soon after the government announced that it had begun the process of seeking a court order to force those BEC workers back to work who had engaged in an "illegal strike." In fact, BEC executives even accused some of those workers of sabotage at the Clifton Pier Power Plant which led to power loss around the island last week.

"We cannot give away public money simply because somebody is putting pressure on you and that is why we draw the line," said Minister Gibson, himself a former trade union leader.

"Because they were able to come back last year and get $2.5 million; each [union] member [was given] $2,500 [in] less than six months, they come back again wanting another $10,000 a piece. So if you give them something now that they are not entitled to what do you think will happen next month? They will be back again."

The Supreme Court issued an order late Friday declaring that the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union [BEWU] was in breach of the Industrial Relations Act by refusing to report to work and ordered those workers to return to duty, according to a notice issued by the Attorney General’s Office.

The ruling further ordered the union against calling it members on any strike or urging them to leave their employment until the Bahamas Industrial Tribunal has resolved the dispute.

The BEWU has been claiming that line staff members at the government owned electricity corporation are owed the money because for more that two years they worked in excess of the required 40 hour work week.

However, the labour minister has a different take on the matter. Probed by host Wendall Jones, he went into extensive detail about the background to the current conflict.

The former Free National Movement administration changed the work week from 48 to 44 hours and then eventually to 40 hours. At the time that the last change took effect in 2003, government corporation employees were already working 40 hours or less a week, Mr. Gibson said.

However those employees started lobbying to have an additional half hour reduction despite already being in compliance with the law. The change was eventually approved for the state owned telecommunications and water corporations. The approval for BEC eventually happened after the union signed its last industrial contract in 2004, said Mr. Gibson.

"So management reduced it by half an hour, so [the BEWU] said ‘ok since you reduced it in 2005, we want you to pay us for that same half hour from the time we first asked you in 2003’" he said.

"If they were working more than the [40] hours and were not in compliance then they would have a case but they were already at 40 and below and management had no obligation to give them any additional monies because they were already where they ought to be."

The issue was one of 33 that the union disputed with executives of BEC. After Full Gospel Bishop Neil Ellis was appointed arbitrator, 30 of those issues were resolved, 90 in the union’s favour, according to the government.

According to the minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Golden Gates, some BEC workers have threatened not to vote for the governing Progressive Liberal Party if they do not secure what they believe is their entitlement.

"But I would rather lose the election than have my conscience tell me that I gave them $9 million just for a vote," he said, "and who is to say they would vote for me if I give them $9 million anyhow?...It’s a concern but you can’t let that be the driving force."

At a press conference held last Friday, Bishop Ellis provided his assessment of the relative strength of the BEWU’s demand, indicating that he was of the view that the union was not entitled to "anything" legally.

He said, however, he felt that the union should have been awarded some form of compensation.

"I made representation to the management and to the government that we considered something from a moral perspective since their brothers and sisters in sister corporations – water and sewerage, and BTC – did get some kind of remuneration even though in both cases they (the other unions) were giving up certain things," Bishop Ellis said.

According to the mediator, he proposed that 920 BEWU members be paid $1.234 million in back pay.

Minister Gibson said despite the BEC matter, labour relations in the country are generally very good and claimed to have excellent interactions with trade union leaders through regular meetings and correspondence