The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A trade union leader yesterday argued that major changes must be made to a “deficient’ Employment Act and this nation’s industrial relations system.

“The system isn’t fair to the worker,” said Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told a Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) seminar.

Mr Ferguson highlighted several Bahamian cases exposing issues that, he said, pointed to the need for Employment Act reform.

He also used the opportunity to endorse the Privy Council as this nation’s final court of appeal. “I support wholeheartedly the continuation of the Privy Council. I support 101 per cent the continuation of the Privy Council,” said Mr Ferguson.

He then endorsed the lifting of the Employment Act’s redundancy pay cap, a point he recently expressed to Tribune Business. The Employment Act, which came into effect in 2001, allows line staff two weeks’ severance pay for every year worked up to 12 years, ‘capping’ the maximum payment they are entitled to at the equivalent of six months’ salary plus two weeks’ pay with, or in lieu, of notice.

Managerial staff are entitled to one month’s severance pay for every year worked, ‘capping’ the maximum sum they are entitled to at the equivalent of 12 months or one year’s salary, plus a month’s pay with, or in lieu, of notice. The Christie administration’s is currently proposing to remove the Employment Act’s redundancy pay ‘cap’.

“The Employment Act says that you work for 30 years, 40 years, it doesn’t matter,” Mr Ferguson said. “if you are not a supervisor or manager you’re entitled to a maximum of 12 months.

“That is not right. That’s not fair to the worker. I don’t support that. There is need for some serious changes to the Employment Act and, for that matter, the whole industrial relations system in this country.”