The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Public Service Union President John Pinder criticised the Ministry of Works yesterday for reportedly withholding the salaries of nearly 100 employees as a means to recoup money the government “accidentally” overpaid the workers.

Mr Pinder told The Tribune it was “inhumane” to withhold a persons entire salary, especially without notifying the employee before the money was taken.

He said it is “hypocritical” for the ministry to be able to owe employees money for seven years, yet employees get punished for something that was “not even their fault”.

“What happened was that the employees were overpaid when they received their lump sum payment for the hazard pay. They were supposed to be paid from July 2007, but they were paid hazard pay from January 2007,” he said.

“So the ministry then decided to take the employees’ entire salary rather than recovering it over a period of time or notifying them. That is just inhumane, those persons were expecting to be paid, they had bills to pay and went to get their money and there was nothing. So I spoke with the management and they said they will write the employees and ask them how they want their funds to be recovered. We are going to get this done.

“How is it possible for them to owe the employees for seven years, but I can’t owe you for six months? It is inhumane to take a person’s entire pay like that. They did pay whatever loans the workers had, but they kept their net pay.”

The workers were supposed to be paid last Friday.

Mr Pinder said the workers are expected to have their salaries reimbursed by Thursday and they will have 12 months to repay the lump sum overpayment.

One worker who wished to remain anonymous said many of the workers were forced to “borrow money” from friends and neighbours just to get through the weekend.

“I have been employed with the Ministry of Works for more than 30 years and I have never seen nothing like this before,” the civil servant said. “When the technical workers went to the bank they were told that the Ministry of Works did not post any monies to many employees’ account for some unknown reason. This sort of action put the employees in a difficult position. Our utilities and loans cannot be met as a result of their action,” he said.

The worker said many employees could not buy groceries over the weekend.

“Some of us couldn’t even give our kids lunch money,” he added. “We need answers and we need it now. No one seems to care about the well being of the workers. How are we supposed to survive like this? This is unfair and it is not right.”

The government started making payments to Ministry of Works employees in July for outstanding hazardous pay workers said they were owed since 2005.

The payments came one week after nearly 200 Ministry of Works employees blocked the entrance to the ministry’s JFK Drive compound to protest about nine years of not receiving hazardous pay.