Govt. says sickout held entire public service hostage
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A week-long “coordinated” sickout of finance and accounting staff in the public service has cost the government some $7.5 million due to revenue and efficiency losses, said the Ministry of Finance yesterday.
The industrial action, which took place between February 14 and February 18, was reportedly taken by employees over an outstanding promotional exercise and back pay.
“The impact of this action on the delivery of services was severe,” the ministry said in a statement.
“No payments to vendors or employees were processed, and more importantly, the accounting and collection of revenue were impacted.
“The estimated financial impact of this coordinated sickout to the Government was $7.5 million due to revenue lost or foregone and lose efficiency.”
Additionally, the ministry said the “unauthorized” action could cause the further delay of the promised payment of increments for the FY20/21 to public officers.
The statement noted that the government had intended on reinstating those increments around the mid-year budget, which would have cost the government an additional $7 million, however, given the losses experienced by the sickout, the reinstatement “in all likelihood, would be deferred”.
The ministry further noted that because the industrial action was not authorized by the Bahamas Public Service Union, the government is not aware of any grievances and the BPSU president Kimsley Ferguson was unavailable to meet with officials throughout the entire week.
“Mr. Ferguson had previously been in contact with Ministry of Finance officials concerning matters related to Finance and Accounting Officers,” the statement continued.
“The matters pertaining to issues of promotions and allowances are long-standing matters, and their resolution has been complicated by a decision by senior public officials in the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury to give these same officers an unauthorized pay increase and promotions in February 2021.”
The ministry indicated that finance and accounting officers received an average salary increase of $5,000 during this exercise, although no approval was ever granted by the Public Service Commission.
“This lack of approval from the Public Service Commission means that these officers can’t receive job letters reflecting their new salaries, and their retirement benefits would also not reflect their new salaries.”
While work started in October 2021 to correct the situation, the minister said “some finance and accounting officers apparently believe that they should be exempt from the public service’s financial rules.”
“Through this coordinated work stoppage, they felt they could have coerced the government to accept this unauthorized pay increase,” the statement added.
“The government is steadfast in its belief that no one group of employees should hold the entire public service hostage and treat all public officers fairly.
“It is unfortunate that this selfish act has impacted so many other public officers through the possible continuation of increment deferrals and also vendors of the government.
“The government is committed to continuing the exercise to regularize this unauthorized pay increase received by these officers. The government would also take steps to minimize future disruption in its services by the illegal withdrawal of labor from this class of employees.”
On Tuesday, Minister of State for the Public Service Pia Glover-Rolle said she was “taken aback” by a sickout given that she had only just received the promotion recommendations on Monday.
She estimated that the process may take about four weeks, noting that over 100 recommendations had been received.
She also noted that there has been a successful placement of government workers who were on the payroll but had not been received a placement.
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