Union president says more than a year without redress of concerns, no discussions with WSC executives
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Water and Sewerage Management Union (WSMU) President Montgomery Miller yesterday called for executives at the corporation to engage with the union and address ongoing concerns of workers or “do the right thing” and resign.
Miller, who criticized the management of the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) over the past four years, said under the leadership of Executive Chairman Adrian Gibson and General Manager Elwood Donaldson, the organization has been run poorly.
He further insisted that police investigations into WSC’s operations are welcome by the union.
The union leader outlined several ongoing concerns including the abuse and mistreatment of WSC employees; the “maluse” of WSC limited financial resources; the lawlessness in the disregard for contractual obligations; the destabilization of the corporation through high employee turnover and the failure of executives to advance pre-existing institutional strengthening initiatives.
Miller said the for over a year the union has made public please to the Minister of Public Works, the prime Minister and wrote on multiple occasions to the general manager seeking a meeting to address their issues, but all calls have fallen on deaf ears.
“While the Corporation is cash strapped amidst reports of questionable contract awards, the management employees continued to operate under a contract which expired in June 2013, over 8 years ago,” he said.
“We have endured the wrongful withholding of contractual benefits while the corporation proceeded to spend lavishly on questionable equipment and plant acquisitions to the tune of millions of dollars which to date has failed to produce any significant benefit.”
He claimed that “over the past months and years, managers have been summarily dismissed without due process, illegally had salaries withheld for months on end, were subject to punitive and retaliatory job reassignments and subjected to victimization and intimidation from the highest levels”.
He questioned why several vacancies at the executive level have remained unfilled, calling it a glaring deficiency in corporate oversight.
Miller further called on WSC executives to produce the annual reports of the corporation and show its performance, along with outlining its plans for reform and enhancement as a result of the findings from a forensic audit published nearly three years ago.
“We call upon the executive chairman and general manager, to do the honourable thing in the interest of the Water & Sewerage Corporation, the Bahamian people, its employees and even its vendors,” he said.
“For our part, the middle management employees will continue to do our very best to serve the interest of the public, unfortunately not because of, but in spite of the present leadership of the Water & Sewerage Corporation”.
