The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE government is not compensating officers from the Departments of Customs and Immigration for working on holidays, Trade Union Congress President Obie Ferguson said yesterday.

Mr Ferguson told The Tribune that besides the members of the Bahamas Air Traffic Controllers Union (BATCU), employees at the Bahamas Customs Department as well as the Department of Immigration were facing issues with holiday pay compensation.

BATCU President Lashan Gray also said yesterday that initial investigations done by the BATCU revealed that there are others “throughout the public service experiencing similar breaches of the Employment Act” as those within the Department of Civil Aviation.

Mr Ferguson said that the TUC was in talks with Labour Minister Shane Gibson, with meetings between the two parties held as recently as last week to try and remedy the issue.

“We’re working with the minister of labour to try to speed it up,” he said at the House of Labour on Wulff Road yesterday. “We’re talking and the minister is attempting to have it corrected.”

Meanwhile, Mr Ferguson said the BATCU had previously met with aviation officials in hopes to have their matter resolved. So far they have not been successful.

“My understanding is that the union would’ve met with the chief in the Aviation Department to resolve these matters, but nothing has happened,” he said. “I don’t know why they haven’t made the payments because the law is that they ought to be paid, and the government of the Bahamas as I know, they obey the law. So why are they not paying after the request is made to be paid?”

Last week Mrs Gray released a statement on behalf of the union, claiming that Civil Aviation continued to not compensate air traffic controllers for public holidays worked, despite an agreement with the union signed in December 2014.

As a result, Mrs Gray said yesterday that the outstanding funds owed to the 100 members of the BATCU totalled $51,000 to date, or approximately $500 per person over four holidays, which includes Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and Majority Rule Day.

“We expect the department would meet their obligations as it is within the law as committed to in December 2014 and compensate our employees for the work performed in accordance with the law,” she said. “We know it’s already gone past the time, so of course they’re already in breach, however they can’t expect to ask us to continue to allow them to violate the rights of our employees. We expect that they will pay.”

However, when asked if the union would engage in industrial action over the matter, she would only say: “It’s up to the department whether they wish to pay or they wish to have the employees have their days off. I leave that at the feet of the department.”

Mr Ferguson said the TUC and its affiliates are in “full support” of BATCU’s position.

“We believe the law is clear, where you work an excess of 40 hours on a normal day is time and a half, and on public holidays is double time. That should not be an issue.”

Earlier this week, the Department of Civil Aviation said it is working to facilitate the overdue payments. It said the payments would be made in short order.

However, the department cautioned the union against action that could cause “severe economic hardship to the country at a time when every effort is being made to rebuild the national economy.”

The department also called on the union to “exercise greater discretion in its public pronouncements.”