The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemdia.net

GREATER enforcement of the Industrial Relations Act is needed for employers to come to the table and negotiate once a union has received recognition, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) leader said yesterday.

 “That is something that I had proposed some time ago; that 12 months should be established to allow the parties to negotiate,” TUC president Obie Ferguson told Tribune Business. “If the parties are not able to meet an agreement voluntarily on their own, the Industrial Relations Act should make provisions for the appointment of the first industrial agreement. That is the way that it is in Canada and most progressive labour relation systems make provisions for that.

“Where you find that the employer is not interested in following the law, the Industrial Relations Act provides for where a union is recognised, the employer is obligated under Section 2 of the Industrial Relations Act  to treat with the recognised union and to do so in good faith with the view of completing the industrial agreement and having it executed in a reasonable period of time,” said Mr Ferguson.

“We are saying that where the employer refuses to do, our industrial relations system should be so structured that a matter would be referred to the system and the Act would give the chairperson of that board the powers to put into effect a first industrial agreement.”

Mr Ferguson said that although the law states that an employer should negotiate with a recognised union or bargaining agent, the issue was enforcement. “We have no mechanism in place for enforcement. It really does put the labour movement at a  disadvantage.”

The TUC has had a long standing dispute with Sandals Royal Bahamian over the issue of union recognition. Mr Ferguson said on Tuesday that the Bahamas Hotel Maintenance and Allied Workers Union (BHMAWU), which falls under the TUC, was hoping to begin negotiation on a new agreement with the hotel this week after the Court of Appeal last week discharged an injunction which now paves the way for negotiations.