The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL kvirgil@tribunemedia.net PRIME Minister Hubert Ingraham said customs and immigration officers at the airport are breaching their terms of employment by refusing to work the shift system outlined in their contracts. Claiming that the civil servants' stance is politically motivated, Mr Ingraham said it is unthinkable that people would do such "nonsense" . "The reality is that most of those (Customs) officers were hired by the government on the basis that they would work shifts. Many of them have signed a letter confirming, that's how they got hired and so the fact that they don't want to work that way is putting their own jobs in their hands for them to decide themselves," Mr Ingraham said. His comments came in Buckley's, Long Island, following the official constituency office opening for FNM incumbent Loretta Butler-Turner on Monday evening. However, Bahamas Customs Immigration and Allied Workers Union president Sloan Smith said they are unclear of which "signed agreement" Mr Ingraham is referring to. He said: "What we were made to understand is that when the officers were hired they signed something that said they would eventually be made to work shift, but we haven't seen anything concrete." "The only thing that we have seen concrete is the industrial agreement for 2005 to 2010 and the government really wasn't holding true to that." With a clear confusion among all parties involved, Mr Smith said they are waiting for Mr Ingraham to agree to a meeting. The minister responsible for civil servants, Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette, has also echoed Mr Ingraham's sentiments. The Lynden Pindling International airport struggled to process passengers in a timely fashion over the weekend up to Tuesday, although senior officials from both departments covered for staff who refused to work outside the 9am - 5pm work day outlined in General Orders for public servants. Mr Ingraham warned at an emergency press conference in Exuma on Saturday that persons who did not return to work, from that day, would be dealt with by the public service without regard to any other consideration. He said: "Longer lines than we've ever seen before. Some people were in the queue for approximately two hours." "There were people who fainted and no nurse was on duty. Unfortunately there were significant press calls on the British Airways flight to cover Prince Harry's visit - they were very unhappy."