The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A trade union leader yesterday described the spread of part-time, casual work as “a major concern’, warning that it threatened to both leave Bahamians “in dire straits” and completely change the industrial relations landscape.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress’s (TUC) president, told Tribune Business there had been “a substantial increase” since the 2008 recession in companies who employed workers on a casual, rather than full-time, basis.

Estimating that the number of companies employing this practice had increased by 15-20 per cent over the past six years, Mr Ferguson said it threatened to undermine the job security and worker benefits the Bahamian labour movement had fought for over many decades.

“That would effectively change industrial relations in the Bahamas. It’s a major concern,” Mr Ferguson told Tribune Business of the increasing tendency by many Bahamas-based companies to ‘outsource’ key functions to independent contractors or casual, non-staff workers.

The issue has come to the fore in recent days over the Grand Lucayan Resort’s plans to shed more than 50 workers, primarily in its security and laundry departments.

While the hotel has been tight-lipped on the issue, Mr Ferguson, who is acting as the attorney for the union representing the affected workers, the Commonwealth Union of Hotel Services and Allied Workers, says the move is designed to cut costs by outsourcing these functions to outside contractors.

While some workers were likely to be hired by these independent providers, these companies will likely be non-unionised.

This means the workers who sign on with them will no longer enjoy the union’s protection, and will lose the benefits and protection they had under the industrial agreement.

“It’s a major concern, because it leaves the worker unsecure, with no protection, and their benefits disappear,” Mr Ferguson told Tribune Business.

“They [the workers] would be in dire straits, a very bad position, and it would completely change industrial relations in the Bahamas.

“The unions, as we know now, will not exist, and I’m not sure that helps the worker, as their group health insurance, group pensions, will disappear.”

‘Outsourcing’, or hiring outside companies to perform functions previously done in-house, has become a commonplace trend in the corporate world across the globe, as has the practice of hiring part-time, casual workers who are not considered as part of the company’s workforce.

These moves are designed to cut labour costs to a minimum, but they do nothing for worker job security.

Mr Ferguson yesterday said these practices were starting to become increasingly evident in the Bahamas, with the hotel and financial services industries, and even the Government, adopting them.

“Everyone seems to be going that route,” he told Tribune Business, and I don’t think it’s the best thing to do. Everywhere I turn it’s increasing. That’s the disappointing part. We’re going to keep a close eye on it.”

Returning to the Grand Lucayan, the TUC president said the resort had been employing 45-50 part-time staff even before recent events, which seem likely to take this total to around 100.

He suggested that the ‘outsourcing’ trend might also encompass the hotel’s housekeeping and food and beverage operations, although there is no evidence to support that at the moment.

And Mr Ferguson said he, and the union, were urging the Grand Lucayan to hand the security contract to the employees they were planning to release, rather than hand it to an existing private contractor that would re-hire some of them at a lower salary rate.

The TUC president said one of the Grand Lucayan workers set to be laid-off had informed him they were being offered a $200 weekly wage by the private provider, compared to the $375 rate they now earn on-staff.

Mr Ferguson described the resort’s actions as “regressive”, adding that it had failed to follow the procedures set out in the industrial agreement with the union concerning lay-offs.

“Like everything else, we expect the industrial agreement to be followed, but in this instance the employer took a completely different view,” he said.

“The agreement makes provision if there are going to be lay-offs and changes to the terms of employment. It can be done, but in accordance with the provisions of the industrial agreement and consultation with the union.”

The Commonwealth Union of Hotel Services and Allied Workers is set to hold a strike vote on the matter today between 9am and 5pm.