The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Union of Teachers President Belinda Wilson has filed an appeal over her six-month suspension for alleged undisclosed procedural violations imposed on December 18.

However, Mrs Wilson told The Tribune yesterday it was unlikely that any movement would be made with the dispute until the new school year resumed in 2015.

At that time, she said the union is expected to convene a meeting and appoint a three-member committee to review the grounds for which the appeal was filed. They will have 21 days to consider the matter and make a decision. 

Mrs Wilson and the BUT’s treasurer, Lorraine Knowles, who was suspended for four months, filed the appeals on Thursday.

When contacted yesterday, Mrs Wilson declined further comment saying she did not want to prejudice a possible outcome.

Following the suspension, which many unionists considered unprecedented, Mrs Wilson suggested that certain executive committee members who opposed her during the last union election were behind her suspension.

To date, the official charge against the two BUT officers has not been revealed, but several members told The Tribune they believed the suspension was sparked by concerns with the union pension fund.

“During the last election,” she told reporters a day after her suspension, “there were actually two teams so you do have persons on the committee who were not a part of the team I would have led and I believe there still may be some underlying issues there.”

Mrs Wilson said although relations among members of the executive committee “have been peaceful,” she was not surprised by her suspension as rumours had been floating around social media for several weeks.  

She vowed at the time to immediately appeal the suspension decision and to send a letter to the secretary general of the union regarding it.

“Let me state unequivocally that there was no crime committed,” Mrs Wilson said. “We will appeal our suspension and we have to do that within five days and then the power will be left in the hands of the members. Unfortunately, though, this suspension is a major distraction because Ms Knowles and myself are two of the full-time members who run the union on a day-to-day basis.

“Secondly, it’s a distraction because this will negatively impact our members because we’re presently at the negotiation table and Ms Knowles and myself are members of the negotiation team and I am the lead negotiator. We’ve been negotiating for approximately seven months and we have completed and agreed on 90 per cent of our agreement so I’m now awaiting a counter proposal from the government, which is expected as early as next week.”