Philip 'Brave' Davis
By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Staff Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
DEPUTY Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis yesterday defended Bahamas Electricity Corporation chairman Leslie Miller as the battle between unions and executive management over benefits continue.
Mr Davis added that the practice of “double-dipping” by public servants has been a challenge at the National Insurance Board for more than a decade.
Mr Davis said: “Mr Miller is my chairman, he has his style of doing things. The way I’m doing it, I don’t look at style, I look at substance and the substance of this matter requires our attention. He has brought the substance to the fore, and we will deal with it.”
He added: “The matter has to be resolved, I expect that there will be a sitting down between the union, management, and labour consultants, the bottom line is that it will be resolved and if (benefit cuts) are the result, that will be the result.”
Last week, tensions between unions representing line staff and middle managers and the corporation’s chairman Leslie Miller escalated to threats of industrial action.
Bahamas Electrical Utility Managerial Union president Clinton Minnis threatened that power generation could be cut if demands were not met.
The Bahamas Electrical Workers Union has threatened to start representing employees of Mr Miller’s private businesses – forcing Mr Miller to deal with the BEWU in order to make his own living.
Both unions have filed trade disputes with the Ministry of Labour.
Yesterday, Mr Davis said: “It is sad that they would be issuing threats, it’s the Bahamian public we are serving. In threatening one another, either the chairman threatening the union or the union threatening management or the chairman, it cannot produce anything productive. I would hope that what was said, was said in the heat of the moment and that such threats will not manifest itself in actuality.”
The union backlash comes after Mr Miller issued a corporation-wide memo telling staff they will no longer be allowed to collect from National Insurance for certain benefits, such as sick benefit, while being paid by BEC.
He said beginning November 1, BEC employees will no longer be allowed to “double dip” by collecting both NIB and their full salary.
Mr Davis said: “I was chairman of NIB between 2000 and 2007, and at that time we had on the table actively addressing this issue because the whole public service is doing the same thing. While they are off sick, they are paid their full salary and they still claim for National Insurance.
“It was never intended to be that.”
Comments
henny 11 years ago
Agree with Miller and Davis 100%. Employees should NEVER be allowed to collect a paycheck and disability from NIB at the same time. If you are disabled and cannot work why be allowed to receive a paycheck?
john33xyz 11 years ago
Leslie Miller should be PM. Then we would be able to move forward, upward, onward together. But as it has been since 1967, it has only been "forward" for the chosen few and the illegal immigrants they employ.
The choice is in the hands of the bahamian people and they deserve to get whatever they choose to get. The choice will be made soon.
john33xyz 11 years ago
Even if the Bahamian dollar was going to be cut to 75cents vs US$, because of our outlandish debts and spending, the Unions would still say "We still want our benefits, as long as we get more than ya'll - too bad for ya'll".
ThisIsOurs 11 years ago
Wtf? Leslie been there all but 2hours and Brave was there 5yrs (having apparently done nothing) and proudly states that? There must be some conflict in contract terms. I'm sure NIB's clause states the rules clearly, Full Salary = NO NIB. I'll eat my hat if NIB has some other rule in place. No one can come in after and agree to a contract that violates what NIB has in place that's ridiculous. He is a lawyer and I hear a good one at that. One contract has to be declared null and void and I suspect it's the latter. More than likely no one had the political courage to upset the applecart,...better yet the gravy train.
JohnDoe 11 years ago
@This is Ours, I won't recommend eating your hat. What Brave is conveniently not saying is that the NIB sick benefits are a legal entitlement once sickness is ascertained. If an employer through an employment contract also agrees to pay full sick pay as well that is a discretion of the employer and by the way not against any law. In my business I do pay my employees full pay during sickness, but with the understanding that if NIB is claimed then they are to reimburse the company with the NIB benefit. In my view, what is going on is certainly unjust enrichment but technically it is not against the law and is merely an employer contractually granting its employees an enhanced benefit similar to an employer granting 20 days vacation per annum instead of the, I believe, 7 days in the Employment Act. Successive PLP and FNM governments, as Brave is fully aware exercised their discretion to contractually grant these civil servants these enhanced benefits and Brave is now just being politically expedient and less than honest in shifting the blame to the civil servants who are merely following the terms of their employment contracts in most cases. As for their behaviour and the behaviour of Miller that is an entirely different matter.
ThisIsOurs 11 years ago
I feel indigestion coming on already... Ok so as the employer you grant paid sick days of 12 days or so. Over those 12 days the employee is receiving full pay while sick from you. My question is does NIB (not the employer) have rules that say "when I submit this form I am doing so in good faith that my salary has been cut due to sickness"? (I have my hat ready)
JohnDoe 11 years ago
I think it is the other way around. When an employee is sick, once they have contributed to NIB they are entitled to the NIB sickness benefit. They are not entitled, based on my understanding, to full pay or any pay from their employer once they have exceeded their prescribed sick days, unless of course this is negotiated in their employment contract. So it is the employer not NIB that makes the decision. When they pay full pay they do so knowing full well NIB is obligated to pay the benefit once it is claimed.
John 11 years ago
And then what does Prime Minister, Perry Christie say: LISTEN!
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
John 11 years ago
B.E.C union has had its grip on this country's groin for too long. Who can remember growing up and the lights going off every day and every night and the only explanation was that BEC was striking. Leslie Miller has made great strides in getting BEC goons and its union to release its grip in the Bahamian people and bring some sanity and profitability to that corporation. For the past three years the greedy goods at that corporation has forced many families to live without electricity and many small businesses to close down because they went around week after week, (no I do not mean monthly) disconnecting these peoples supplies...sometimes three times in the same month. Just to line their own pockets with money and live high on the hog while 6,000 Bahamian families lived in the dark Leslie Miller has brought an end to this scandal. They claimed it was something that was ordered by the former prime minister, who brought in 'experts' to give advice. But the greedy goons at BEC used it to their advantage...now they trying to figure how they going to pay mortgage onlavish homes and apartments they built, and car notes even.
John 11 years ago
“I know he is--sensitive--on some points, Detective, but you must bear in mind how hard it is for an honest man to do his work in relative obscurity, while dishonest men attain wealth and renown. That is why corruption is so pernicious. It breaks the will of good men.” ― Jed Rubenfeld, The Interpretation of Murder
countryfirst 11 years ago
Unions are whats sucking this country dry they always want more money and benefits for less productivity.Thank you Mr. Miller for standing up to these evil unions.
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