The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The union representing the Bahamas Electricty Corporation’s (BEC) line staff yesterday said it would not “take any more” attacks by its executive chairman over overtime pay, and threatened that its members would refuse to respond to emergencies such as major power outages.

Stephano Greene, the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) president, said his members were fed up with Leslie Miller’s comments on employee overtime pay, claiming that it was not a line staff issue.

Mr Greene told Tribune Business: “We’re not going to take it any more; we’re going to stop coming out for emergencies.

“When the power turns off in the night, it’s going to stay off until morning. If it turns off Friday, God forbid, it will be off until Monday because we are tired of hearing the chairman talking about line staff salaries and not giving the full story.

“When he says no overtime, we don’t expect for them to go ahead and hire outsiders to do the work that needs to be done,” the union president added.

“The base issue at BEC is that we are understaffed. There was a five-year freeze on hiring. Since this government has come in some positions are being filled, but in almost every area of BEC we are understaffed, especially areas like the power station. I’m hoping the chairman makes the ultimate statement to stop working overtime and see what happens at BEC.”

Mr Greene challenged Mr Miller to call for an “immediate end” to overtime pay, claiming that some employees were racking up huge amounts of overtime because the monopoly power provider was understaffed.

Mr Miller, during his contribution to the Employee Pension Fund Protection Bill (2012), yesterday said BEC spent $41.8 million on employee salaries in 2012 for its 982 staff.

The overtime pay for 2012 exceeded $11.5 million, and Mr Miller questioned how it was possible that one employee could accumulate some $421,361 in overtime over a five-year period, in addition to his salary of $49,547.

“The employee in question made $100,305 in one year in overtime pay. The accounting firm told us that it is physically impossible for any human being to work the hours that they put in, it cannot happen,” said Mr Miller.

He added that another employee, in one year, made $96,871 in overtime pay, in addition to his base salary of $54,000.

Mr Greene expressed disappointment that Mr Miller continued to publicly speak on BEC staff salaries, claiming that this was making them targets for criminals.

“As it relates to the overtime, Mr Miller is not saying to the public that no employee in BEC can work overtime unless it is authorised by management,” the union president added.

“If a staff member makes $20,000-$30,000 in overtime, every second of that has to be authorised by management. We are going to take the position that if the problem in BEC is overtime, the executive chairman who has the power should instruct management to stop staff from working overtime, effectivel immediately.

“That’s going to affect the public drastically. The second position we are going to take is that we are going to ask them to stop working overtime. The problem is not a line staff problem.”