The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s recent 12 union-saving legislation helped produce what one labour executive yesterday described as a “win-win” in the Court of Appeal, with a Harbour Island resort and its opposition both achieving their main objectives.

Bahamas Hotel, Catering & Allied Worker Union vice-president, Darren Woods, said the union’s existence and legal standing had been confirmed despite its recognition as the bargaining agent for Coral Sands’ non-managerial employees being quashed.

Mr Woods told Tribune Business that while he did not wish to downplay the recognition issue, the union’s registration, which was recently secured by passage of the Industrial Relations (Validation of Trade Unions) 2014 Amendment Bill, was “paramount”.

CMK Holdings, the owner of the Coral Sands property, had filed a Judicial Review action seeking to overturn the hotel union’s bargaining agent ststus.

It did so on the grounds that the union, which was known as the Bahamas Hotel Catering Union until 1970, had never amended its constitution to comply with the transition to the Industrial Relations Act 1971 - thus rendering it as an entity that ceased to exist.

“The ruling from the appeals court was kind of a win-win . The management team was looking for the ruling relative to our recognition to be squashed  and a ruling that we ceased to exist. The court held that the recognition given should be squashed, but because the Government amended the Act for the validation of trade unions, they had to take that into consideration,” said Mr Woods.

Justice Christopher Blackman, in a majority decision agreed to by Court of Appeal president, Anita Allen, said: “In all the circumstances I am ineluctably compelled to conclude that the union failed to comply with the transitional provisions of the Industrial relations Act (IRA)m and in the premises, I would set aside the judgment of the learned Chief Justice and quash the determination by the [Minister of Labour] made on February 21, 2012, granting recognition to the second respondent (BHCAWU).”

He added: “Subsequent to the hearing of the appeal, and as a direct consequence of certain observations made in the court during the hearing of the appeal, legislation was enacted by Parliament validating the non-compliance by unions of the requirements of the Industrial Relations Act.

“In the circumstances , I am obliged to take judicial notice of the passage of such legislation and consequently decline to grant the declarations sought.”

Mr Woods said the Validation Bill, passed in Parliament last month, had effectively  saved the union, which has a membership of 6,000, from being dissolved.

“What is amazing is that there were some 11 other unions affected by this same issue. I take my hat off to the Government, who acted swiftly in addressing this matter,” Mr Woods told Tribune Business.

“While we might have lost on one issue, I believe that we won in the bigger scheme of things. The recognition issue is a major issue, but the bigger issue was registration. Saying the union didn’t exist was a bigger matter because the union has assets, a mortgage, a building, and a pension fund.

“I’m not trying to trivialiae recognition issue because we still have the required 50 plus one per cent and could always reapply, but the registration is paramount,” added Mr Woods.

“This was a big feat for us, this administration led by Nicole Martin, to deal with, even though this came way before our time. The lot fell on us and we had to deal with it.”

Labour Minister Shane Gibson told Parliament last month that the Bill was “absolutely necessary”, and was being brought to “protect the rights of thousands of Bahamian workers and the trade unions that represent their interests and welfare”.

Mr Gibson said the Government had moved to ensure a significant number of trade union members and their employers, who may have not followed specific procedural requirements in 1970, approximately 44 years ago, were not disenfranchised and the thousands of workers’ terms and conditions of employment not negatively impacted.

He added that prior to the Industrial Relations Act, all existing unions were required by law to amend their constitutions to make them compliant with the new Act and be certified as having become compliant by the chief industrial officer (who later became the director of labour).

   “The records reflect that all the unions, at that time, did in fact comply. However, the records relative to the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union could not be found, and there was therefore no evidence acceptable to the courts that could prove that the hotel union had complied with the Act,” Mr Gibson said.

“This legal principle could have very serious implications, not only for the Bahamas Hotel, Catering & Hotel Workers Union, but for a number of trade unions that would not be able to provide proof of registration in 1970. Failure on the part of any union to comply reflects that the other trade union organisations that were registered prior to the 1970 Act could be impacted similarly if this legislation is not enacted,.”

 Other unions affected by the issue included the Bahamas Musicians & Entertainers Union (BMEU); the Employers Association of Bahamas Electricity Corporation, now Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU); Airport Airline & Allied Workers Union (AAAWU; Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT); Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU); Bahamas Islands Airline Pilots Association, now Bahamas Professional Pilots Association (BPAPA); Bahamas Construction & Building Trade Union; The United Brotherhood of Longshoremen; Bahamas Photographers Association; Hotel Employers’ Association of the Bahamas, now Bahamas Hotel Employers’ Associations (BHEA), and the Bahamas Contractors Association.