NASSAU, BAHAMAS — President of The Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU), Kimsley Ferguson said that the union will not sign the government’s counter Industrial Agreement until they sit down for further negotiations.
His response was prompted after a letter from the Ministry of Public Service suggested a lack of communication has “delayed the rollout of salary increases” for workers moving into the holidays.
“We are not about to sign a piece of paper with some figures on it suggesting that that is indeed an industrial agreement,” Ferguson said.
“We want a seat at the table so that we can hash out whatever concerns or proposals or counterproposals that we would have forwarded or presented or was presented by the government.
“And so the union is very, very concerned, and we think that it is very disingenuous for the Minister of State to make statements as if negotiations have been ongoing.”
Ferguson said that although they received documents from the labor unit, they have not negotiated with them.
He expressed disappointment in the matter noting that The Bahamas Union of Teachers, The Bahamas Nurses Union, and others had undertaken successful negotiations.
“We also have a number of other outstanding industrial agreements during our discussions with the Prime Minister; the Public Hospitals Authorities Industrial Agreement came up, so did the Airport Authorities Industrial Agreements came up and apparently it appeared as if these discussions fell on deaf ears,” Ferguson continued.
“If we were negotiating in good faith, we believe that those industrial agreements could have been signed off on, and the Public Service Industrial Agreement, while that was being sorted, we would have been seeing some traction in that particular regard because those two agreements that we mentioned have been completed.”
Minister of State for the Public Service Pia Glover-Rolle described negotiations are ‘ongoing’ in a letter last week.
Ferguson called the statement ‘disingenuous’ as the union is still waiting to sit and discuss further negotiations after being ignored.
The Ministry of Public Service issued another statement on Thursday that stated the government had finalized its offer.
In the statement, it was noted that the window of opportunity is closing to get approved incremental increases before the Christmas season.
“These increases include the public service minimum wage increase, as well as multiple incremental increases at all salary levels over the next three years,” the ministry statement read.
“The increments will be paid in addition to the regularly scheduled annual increments. This represents a minimum of at least seven incremental increases for all public servants during the three-year period.
