The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

UNIONS representing workers and managers at the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas are outraged at executive management’s reported plan to force employees to pay for their medical insurance or drop it completely.

The Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union and the Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union held a joint press conference outside the gates of the BCB yesterday, expressing disdain for what they called a “unilateral” move by the corporation’s board of directors to relinquish the medical insurance plan staff now enjoy under the insurance carrier, Atlantic Medical.

Although BCB officials would not comment officially when contacted yesterday, a source in management at ZNS denied the corporation is seeking to end the insurance or make staff members pay the full contribution. What executive management is asking, the source said, is that staff pay 20 percent of their insurance contribution.

The BCB made news several times in late 2020, as BCPOU president Dino Rolle has continued to call out management for allegedly not paying out money owed to staff for overtime and increments. Now the bad blood between the union and BCB management has escalated to an issue with the staff’s health insurance coverage.

Mr Rolle said, “We are in the trough of a raging pandemic where we have mutating strains being identified every day across the globe, and you have a government sponsored board at the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas under Mr Gotlieb who is trying to take away the health insurance of our members.

“Here we are again, at the gates of ZNS and I think we can easily dub ZNS’ gate now, the wailing gate, because we find ourselves coming to this gate too often crying on behalf of our members, about the concerns that they are experiencing here in ZNS under the leadership of Fred Gotlieb, the chairman, and Kayleaser Deveaux-Isaacs, the general manager.”

Mr Rolle told the press that both unions have attempted to communicate with management on the subject, but have gotten no response.

He continued, “We have sent communications, both to BCPOU and BCPMU, to management and we haven’t even gotten a reply. As a result we have filed a trade dispute on behalf of our members here at the Broadcasting Corporation. We are here to tell the public that our members here at ZNS are being taken advantage of by Mr Fred Gotlieb and his board of directors and Mrs Kayleaser Deveaux-Isaacs and her management team.”

He said the unions will not stand by and allow management to impose “what they are trying to do on our members” which is to unilaterally change the terms and conditions of agreements made regarding health insurance.

Ricardo Thompson, BCPMU president, echoing Mr Rolle’s sentiments, said that as of the end of January, staff have to either pay for their own health insurance or opt out of it completely.

He said, “We are here to try to salvage something that the employees of BCB enjoyed from inception. A lot of them are now mature and are even having some challenges health wise. In the midst of this, they have been asked to, come January 31, either seek to make the contribution or opt out of it (medical insurance) by signing out and finding their own coverage.

“We actually presented some options to them and they came back with a decision to just move ahead and remove something as fundamental as health insurance,” he said. “We want you all, as Bahamian people, to not see this as just another cry of the union, but to see this as a cry to make sure this doesn’t permeate, because once an employer, and the employer is the government, decides this then everybody else is going to piggy back.”

Asked if he thought the BCB was trying to cut costs, Mr Thompson said he thought the entire ordeal was “inhumane and insensitive”, but gave BCB’s reasoning for possibly trying to lower its expenditure.

Mr Thompson said, “They said the subvention was reduced by some percentage by the government. Our question as unions is why did they resort to something as fundamental and critical as health insurance? I would look at some other trimmings that goes along with even the way management might be set up with benefits as well as some comparable health insurance plans that are out there and let’s talk about it. Instead they resorted to just get rid of it.

“We know the current carrier is a very costly carrier, but we don’t want our members to be dropped. We even mentioned a few other insurance plans that are suitable, but we got no feedback. We got no response.”

The Tribune reached out to BCB Executive Chairman Fred Gottlieb but he did not offer comment on the matter.

“At this point and time, I am not prepared to make a comment on that. It’s an ongoing matter and at an appropriate time we will make a comment,” Mr Gottlieb said.

The union executives said they will continue to fight on behalf of their members until BCB’s executive management decides to show them some respect.