The Tribune

By DANA SMITH dsmith@tribunemedia.net THE Ministry of Environment wants Water and Sewage Corporation workers to pass a literacy test before they can be made permanent, it was revealed yesterday. Bahamas Utilities, Services and Allied Workers Union (BUSAWU) president Dwayne Woods said he met with Minister Phenton Neymour yesterday to discuss the number of workers yet to be made permanent, despite working at WSC for years. Last Thursday, corporation employees abstained from work in protest, claiming some staff have been working there more than a decade without being granted permanent status. At yesterday's meeting, Mr Woods said the union and the ministry are "progressing slowly" towards the goal of regularising employees, but two things stand in the way. "Those are the only two issues that affects the permanency of the workers," Mr Woods said. "They want to propose a contributory pension plan, which is new to the corporation, and they want a literacy test done before they can regularise these workers." The ministry is "prepared to move forward with regularising" some 50 workers, he said, but those two "differences" must be worked out. "This is something I will have to take back to the workers," Mr Woods said. "We feel as though the persons should have been regularised based on the fact that they are doing their duty... basically based on the time they already spent here." He said some workers have been there for as many as 11 years and are still not permanent. "The corporation feels as though we ought to file a dispute with the labour board, well like I said we'll go back to our membership (with the new terms)." The union and workers will meet as soon as tomorrow and meet again with Mr Neymour on Thursday, Mr Woods said. Last Thursday, Mr Neymour said: "Over the years the government has shown a commitment to regularise a number of the contract workers that existed when we were elected in 2007 and we have begun that process. However it is important that the policies and procedures are consistent."