BEWU president said the executive team was bad for business
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) CEO Whitney Heastie and Director of Human Resources Evis Missick have resigned from the company effective yesterday.
In a statement yesterday, BPL Chairman of the Board Pedro Rolle said that the board received resignation letters from Heastie and Missick and have accepted them.
Rolle had no response when reached for comment from Eyewitness News.
Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) President Kyle Wilson said that from the standpoint of the workers those resignations were welcomed.
“For the past two years, there’s been much discourse from the union from the workers saying there’s no respect, there’s no order from the workers, and much contention between the administration of the time and the union,” Wilson said.
“There’s been complaints about how the company has been managed. The power outages speak for themselves, virtually almost unprecedented. A lot of money was being pumped into the company but it was virtually no change in the cost of electricity, no change in reliability and sustainability of electricity.
“The wrong people were in the right place.”
He noted that the union has conducted sickouts and demonstrated publicly multiple times because of the management style and leadership of Heastie and his team.
Wilson noted that the human resource department at BPL was “not adequately servicing the owners of the company”.
In August 2018, the then BPL Board made up of then Executive Chairwoman Darnell Osborne, Nick Dean, Nicola Thompson, Patrick Rollins, Ferron Bethel, and Heastie was dissolved.
Only Heastie, Rollins, and Bethel retained their positions.
At the time, then Minister of Public Works Desmond Bannister said relationships among the board members had significantly deteriorated, with members “locking horns” on almost every critical issue, which was a great cost to the company and propelled the need for new leadership.
However, the terminated trio hit back at Bannister, insisting that “political interference” and a “continuous disrespect” toward the executive chairman were at the root of the former board’s dysfunction.
Osborne, Thompson, and Dean are suing the government for damages for wrongful dismissal, alleged misfeasance, and slander.
The power company continued to see challenges with increasing pressures from power demands, financial stability, Hurricane Dorian impact, the COVID-19 pandemic impact, and now inflation and the cost of oil due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war in Eastern Europe.
Wilson said he believes going forward the new board has to take a step forward to try to balance the company and bring dignity and respect between the union and executive management.
He said the union has weekly meetings with BPL chairman Rolle to resolve day-to-day issues that “should have been resolved a long time ago”.
“One of the things Id like to see is a more reliable engird supply,” Wilson added.
“I feel like the right decision were not being made in the best interest of the Bahamian people by those who would have resigned and I hope the right people are put in place to make the right decision.”
He said the recent outages in New Providence have been “embarrassing”, pointing to the Clifton Pier Power Plant being managed by Wärtsilä – a Finnish corporation.
Wilson said he believes the government should look into the deal and bring the truth to the Bahamian people.
