NASSAU, BAHAMAS — President of the Bahamas Public Service Union Kimsley Ferguson said the warning over potential headwinds in the economy reinforces the union’s call for an increase for its members.
His statements come as negotiations between the union and the government on the industrial agreement are at a standstill.
Ferguson told Eyewitness News he has submitted another proposal over the past week including terms he thinks should be in the agreement, namely an increase for workers.
“It solidifies the point that we actually have been making in an effort to get the government to reconsider its offer for those persons who are in the M scale and give them the increase that would actually cost them to be competitive in the food stores and in the service stations,” Ferguson said.
During a fiscal quarter presentation, Financial Secretary Simon Wilson acknowledged that people near the poverty line will feel the brunt of an economic slowdown in the case of a recession.
The first quarter performance was attributed to a 9.7 percent increase in revenue collection, according to Wilson at Friday’s press briefing.
“Well obviously, if you have a recession the impact is always felt at the lower income level,” Wilson said.
“Right now if you look at the Bahamian economy, the economy is strong and robust, but obviously, there’s always a concern of the persons in the lower percentile. So that’s where we feel, they would feel any pressure, persons who are in the margin.”
For his part, Ferguson said he was pleased to hear about the country’s economic progress. He said he requested a $100 increase for people within the M scale, like janitors, messengers, security guards, and other support staff, in a recent letter to the prime minister.
Ferguson said the concern was that the increase would create anomalies.
“While that may be so, if granted and is fashioned in the form of an increment there would be no anomalies created and so while the government may not want to give a straight across-the-board increase of $100 to public servants they are doing it in the form of increments and so the increments of various categories of public servants they vary,” he continued.
“[…] The increase that we are speaking to are those persons who would have not been captured by minimum wage and so the union is quite satisfied with the fact that the government has sought to increase the minimum wage and so with the view to allow those persons, whose salaries would have been enhanced to receive the two increment but those persons who were not impacted by the minimum wage, who’s salaries were already beyond minimum wage we’re asking the government to give them a little over $100 increase.”
The BPSU President added that on the current salaries it is difficult for members to combat rising prices in various areas where they would encounter higher bills in covering their basic expenses.
Ferguson added: “We are just asking that whatever increases are given are competitive in the food stores and in the service stations as we know that the persons at the lower end of the scale will be drastically impacted. We have seen the increase in food items, we have seen the increase of gasoline and Lord knows what else is to come so we are agitating in that regard.”
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