Prime Minister Perry Christie
Reader poll
In the ongoing benefits row between BEC Chairman Leslie Miller and the corporation's unions, who do YOU think is right?
- BEC Chairman Leslie Miller is right
- The BEC unions are right
326 total votes.
PRIME Minister Perry Christie yesterday declined to answer questions about the ongoing strife between BEC and its union, the unrest among teachers, the “double dipping” benefits controversy and other pressing matters.
With BEC union members threatening to take industrial action, and public school teachers remaining on a work to rule order, Mr Christie said he was “tired” when asked to comment, adding that he had yet to be briefed since returning from his controversial trip to Europe and Sri Lanka.
Mr Christie said he expects to be briefed on such matters today.
Asked about the strike threats, Mr Christie said he recalled a meeting with teachers, BEC union representatives and members of the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) before his trip.
Without being specific, Mr Christie said he gave “certain indications as to how” their concerns “will be dealt with.”
Yet since his departure, the NCTU, an umbrella union representing tens of thousands of workers, has said that any change to existing benefits will lead to mass industrial action.
And, Mr Christie’s refusal to speak comes just after Union leader Stephano Greene told the press that the only thing holding his members back from taking industrial action is a chance to speak with Mr Christie today. They are upset over BEC chairman Leslie Miller’s decision to stop the corporation’s workers from receiving both their full salaries and NIB benefits while on sick leave – a practice The Tribune has since revealed is standard across the public service, costing the taxpayer up to $10 million a year.
When Mr Christie was asked about these issues following his participation in a five-hour celebration to commemorate the PLP’s 60th anniversary last night, he refused to make anything but a brief and general statement.
The Tribune had also hoped to get responses to the following issues from Mr Christie:
• Value Added Tax (VAT) is being introduced in an effort to secure more revenue for the government. Yet up to 20,000 public servants have the potential to collect both benefits and full salaries while off sick from work. “Double dipping,” as this practice is called, has cost the public tens of millions of dollars over the years. Why will the government not explore the possibility of closing this loophole, and fixing other egregious revenue losses, before adopting a new tax regime that is far more complicated than the one the Bahamas already struggles to enforce?
• With the Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis and PLP chairman Bradley Roberts having already expressed support for Minister Miller’s decision to end the practice of double dipping at BEC, will the government support his stance, and enforce it across the public service?
Comments
banker 10 years, 12 months ago
Wow -- the last time that he was questioned on his relationship with Peter Nygard, Christie said that he was too tired to answer questions. Now he is too tired to answer about the BEC situation. Maybe he is too tired to run this country. What a sad sorry excuse for a Prime Minister.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 12 months ago
Thought the same. Thought the first time was a slip, but he's said it again. He won't have the stamina for 4 more years at this pace. Maybe that's what his MP's are hoping for.... They don't seem to be helping him too much
nationbuilder 10 years, 12 months ago
notice this paper will not probe into the sale of BEC, they just keep focusing with a mission on this .........
ohdrap4 10 years, 12 months ago
he is not solent he sent shame gibson to deliver the message
the bec union head said on tv last night that national insurance is to help with medical expenses. he is wrong, wrong wrong. he apparently is shameless too
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 12 months ago
He actually said that???? I can't believe hat the man put n charge of NIB said that? What is Rowena Bethel saying? That is scary to the tenth power....they either don't know what they're doing or they don't care
ohdrap4 10 years, 12 months ago
the bec union head said that on the nb 12 news, that nib benefits is additional to help with medical expenses.
that is not what is written in the law, of course
JohnDoe 10 years, 12 months ago
The PM is silent but the other daily paper is reporting that the DPM says "BEC sick pay status quo to remain". I guess as Mitt Romney would say, the DPM was for it before he was against it. All this duplicity should make us scared that someting big may be happening in the background. The fact that the government is pushing VAT down our throats and at the same time is unwilling to take a moral stand on this widespread practice that is patently wrong and costing the tax payers millions of dollars a year speaks volumes. I understand that there may be legal constraints to changing the practice immediately but that should not stop us from declaring that at the earliest opportunity this practice will be changed.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 12 months ago
I'm skeptical about what we've been "fed" regarding legal challenges. Common sense tells me that you cannot enter into a contract that (I don't know the correct word) nullifies/ignores(?) an existing contract. If that were the case everyone who bought a stolen car would be allowed to keep it. Nib's standing clause and BEC's standing clause makes clear what NIB is for and how it should work. No one can enter into a contract contrary to that. Every member of staff is given a copy of the handbook, going to assume they are told to read it. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
That said I'm not a lawyer, this reasoning just seems to make sense to me...
JohnDoe 10 years, 12 months ago
Skepticism is required when there has been so much conflicting information put out into the public domain on this issue. I have read the NIB Act, and I certainly stand to be corrected, but I did not see the section that prohibits this practice. The Act seem to state that an employer has the right but not a legal obligation to adjust the salary of employees who also claim NIB sickness benefits. BEC, as did most of the civil service, appeared to have granted their employees this enhanced benefit over an extended period. The legal question then is after having granted this benefit over an extended period and the employees having relied upon and forming a legal expectation to receive this benefit can BEC unilaterally revoke this benefit. Obviously this is a simplification of the legal and practical issues that involve many embedded aspects of common and contract law.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 12 months ago
Ok I get your point, I still don't buy it...from them that is. Companies change their medical plans all the time in the face of shifting economic conditions. No action is brought against them if say they remove dental coverage after years of offering the benefit. (disclaimer: NIB isn't a medical plan, just using this as an example) .
Algernon Cargill changed same practice at NIB. He saw the obvious abuse and cut it out. As Shane Gibson said some weeks ago, ~in review of the operations, as they find erroneous long standing practices, they are correcting them.
(Isn't there also something about the law's "intent". Could the law as written intend that an insurance benefit restores a person 100+%..seems unreasonable. insurance never does that. It would break the back of the insurance plan. Can you imagine what will happen if not 20,000 but 150,000 people started claiming this benefit if this mess isn't corrected?)
john33xyz 10 years, 12 months ago
Also you cannot make a contract to do an illegal thing. For example you cannot have a written contract for a captain to run a boat for you to take cocaine to Miami. If he refuses at the last minute, you cannot take him to court. Even if its not your cocaine and you won't be receiving the money directly.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 12 months ago
What?! I cant take him to court. Do I at least get to keep the cocaine? :)
john33xyz 10 years, 12 months ago
LOL
john33xyz 10 years, 12 months ago
To this, I will repost the same message I put last week ...
Perhaps Mr. Miller can take a different tack - in light of the threat of power shutdown. He can publicly say that "Obviously the BEC union has the country's head in a noose, and not wanting to see my country hang by the neck - I hereby recognize the lofty authority and superior value of BEC employees and their Union - and therefore now ORDER that BEC employees on sick leave will be paid DOUBLE-TIME from BEC and ALSO be allowed to collect their NIB benefit - in effect changing double-dipping to triple-dipping - because if they are allowed to double-dip - then why not triple-dip. This policy will take effect as of Dec 1st."
Maybe that will stir up enough concern from the public to march on Rawson Square. If not, then in January - he should change it to triple-pay + NIB (quadruple-dipping) while on sick leave. Hey why not? Nobody can do anything about it, right? They can be paid 10x their salary while sick and WHO can do anything? Obviously even the PM cannot.
akbar 10 years, 12 months ago
All of us know of the cautious nature of the PM. Do you really expect to stick a microphone in his face and to have him blurt out something. Cmon only Leslie Miller is a press whore.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 12 months ago
"I'm tired" (?)
akbar 10 years, 12 months ago
So the PM can't be tired after spending all yall money.Give the man a break telling ,you the country is in bad shape and then spending your money like it can't end can take a lot out of a man.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 12 months ago
I never said "he can't be tired". I literally commented the last time he made a similar statement that I could empathize with him being tired at the end of a long day. What I am surprised at, as I said above, is that he repeated the statement. In that vein I was referring to your *do you really expect to stick a microphone in his face and have him blurt something out"....apparently yes! and it works consistently, remember the advice to "sell sand to the US" which turns out to be illegal?
ADubbs 10 years, 11 months ago
Man, PGC can't waste his big words on this small issue. Y'all better relax before he asks to be put in a medically induced coma. You know he's been tired for months, and now, after all that travelling, what do you expect?
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