The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS Financial Services Union (BFSU) said the latest round of potential commercial banking lay-offs showed the benefits of being unionised, as it could do nothing for Scotiabank workers.

Theresa Mortimer, the BFSU’s head, said that while it was “unfortunate” that Scotiabank was moving to outsource some of its back office functions to Trinidad & Tobago, the union could do nothing for impacted employees but “sit down and let it happen” as they were not unionised.

She added that while the financial services sector as a whole was being “knocked”, the union had been able to negotiate better arrangements for its members in light of redundancies looming at the likes of CIBC First Caribbean International Bank (Bahamas).

“The financial sector on a whole is being knocked,” Ms Mortimer said. “The Bahamas is where most of the profit is coming from. If the Bahamas teams will pull themselves together and hold their heads, they can balance out better than the rest of the Caribbean.

“When I spoke to my counterparts in Barbados and Antigua just last week, they’re sitting at the table talking strategy, the same thing we’re doing with CIBC.”

She added: “They’re going home because of their years of service. They have the first privilege. That’s the good of the union. You’re to sit down and say redundancies need to happen, but why not offer packages to those who would like to go. Let’s deal with that and see how that goes before we deal with the rest. Counterparts in other parts of the region are not dealing with this yet. I’m sorry that it’s happening [at Scotiabank], but there’s nothing I could do.”

Referring to the CIBC First Caribbean situation, Ms Mortimer said several senior employees who wanted to accept voluntary separation packages had been leaving since last October, creating room for younger employees.

“I have a meeting next week with the bank. Our people started going in October, those who wanted to go,” she said. “We’re going to look and see who is left and what we’re dealing with going forward.

“From rank and file we’ve lost about 20 persons. From management, I don’t know. At that meeting hopefully we’ll get some figures to know where we are,.”

CIBC First Caribbean recently announced that the bank, which has a 3,500-strong workforce in the Caribbean, was looking to cut employee costs by 10 per cent.

Marie Rodland-Allen, the BISX-listed institution’s managing director for the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos, said it was set to make “decisions on redundant positions”, although she declined to say how many posts might go.

The Bahamian operation is thought to account for around 40 per cent of CIBC FirstCaribbean’s total business. But for the fiscal year ending October 31, 2013, it suffered a $17.9 million net loss on $168 million in revenue.

Last week, Scotiabank announced plans to “centralise” some of its Bahamian back office functions into its Trinidad & Tobago hub, and is attempting to either avoid or minimise staff lay-offs as a result.

The bank, in a statement, said it will offer affected employees the option of applying for voluntary separation packages. It did not indicate how many jobs will be impacted by this outsourcing/offshoring, but the move follows similar exercises that have been undertaken by its two Canadian-owned rivals, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and the aforementioned CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank.