The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The union representing more than 100 line staff at Morton Salt yesterday accused the company of ‘punishing’ bargaining unit employees in an effort to force the signing of a new industrial agreement.  

Jennifer Brown, president of the Bahamas Industrial, Manufacturers & Allied Workers Union (BIMAWU), said that line staff were being taken advantage of since being put on a three-day work week.

The union objected in October to the Inagua-based company’s decision to unilaterally alter the employee work week from five days to three days.

Ms Brown said yesterday that while bargaining unit employees were only working three days, the company was bringing in contract workers to carry out the same work over a five-day week.

    “Since employees at Morton were put on a three-day work week, the workers are being taken advantage of.  Jobs that were done by bargaining unit employees were stopped and contractors are hired to perform the same job,” said Ms Brown, questioning the rationale behind the move.

    “The way Morton is treating the workers is not fair nor necessary. They are being punished. We have people who are just out of school, untrained with no certificate, and they are getting preference over the regular workers.

“We have a serious problem with that. Jobs that can be performed by regular workers, they have contract workers doing those jobs. We’re asking the Government to step in once again,” Ms Brown added.

“One of the reasons I think they are treating the employees the way they are is because we have a matter before the Industrial Tribunal, and they want to put pressure on the union to sign a contract. We are waiting for the Tribunal to give a ruling, which is taking forever. Since March 4 we have been waiting for a ruling in that matter.”

    The issue before the Tribunal stemmed from a dispute brought last November between the BIMAWU and Morton over the latter’s definition of overtime and and proposed base salary increase for workers.

Morton Salt, at the time, said it was waiting for the union to “ratify” the five-year industrial agreement. It accused the union of using the overtime issue as a “stalling tactic” to delay ratifying the proposed agreement.

Morton Salt did not provide a response up to press time yesterday.