The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

MANY taxi-cab drivers on Grand Bahama have been denied the 13-week unemployment extension benefit, the president of the Grand Bahama Taxi Union has claimed.

He called for an explanation from the government.

A National Insurance Board representative suggested the issue an oversight, explaining officials are now identifying taxi drivers who were beneficiaries under the previous government-funded assistance programme for self-employed workers in the tourism sector in order to migrate them to the extension programme.

Harold Curry, of the Grand Bahama Taxi Union, said cab drivers have been out of work for over a year since Hurricane Dorian, and many need help.

“We have close to 600 cab drivers in GB, and most of them are in the tourism industry and they depend on tourists. We have 60 percent of the people in GB in the tourist industry and they are without a job,” he said on Thursday.

According to Mr Curry, cab drivers had initially received an eight-week unemployment benefit of $200 per week.

He said taxi drivers had been asked to reapply for an additional 13-week benefit for $150 per week.

“We need the government of The Bahamas to know that some of my drivers did not receive any unemployment benefit and for some reason, they were denied,” Mr Curry said.

“A lot had reapplied, but they were denied for what reason, we don’t know. They did not let them know the reason why they were denied. So, I would like to know why they were denied.”

Nicola Virgil-Rolle, director of NIB, said: “At the beginning of the programme we migrated people from the government self-employed programme, and one of the criteria for migration to the new government extension programme was to have been involved in the tourism sector as self-employed persons. And so, those who were self-employed identified as being in the tourism sector would have automatically migrated over.

“We recognised that there were some who may not have identified in that category who were not identified as in the tourism sector. We are now reviewing our list to ensure that anybody who was legitimately in the tourism sector would be migrated over.”