The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE National Tripartite Council’s co-chairman said yesterday that he has no problem making it mandatory for employers to formally consult the government before making employees redundant.

Peter Goudie’s statements came in the wake of Sandals’ recent decision to make more than 600 hundred of its employees redundant until repairs around the resort have been completed.

The resort’s decision prompted Labour Minister Shane Gibson to call on the council to support the government’s recommendation to update this country’s redundancy laws to ensure that employers must give the government proper notice of their redundancy plans and have formal consultations with the government before commencing such plans.

Mr Gibson has repeatedly expressed frustration with what he has suggested is the council’s unwillingness to address the matter.

But Mr Goudie, one of the leading business representatives on the council and co-chairman of the group with Robert Farquharson, the director of labour, said yesterday: “I don’t have any problem with dialogue before doing something important. That’s the whole point of the tripartite council.

“As for companies coming to the government, I’m not sure I’m against that. Why not explore the best ways of doing something before doing it? That’s just dialogue and a look at what’s best for the country. The only problem is if you’re going to make a whole bunch of people redundant, you could get a lot of problems at work if you give too much notice. You don’t want people to get upset because they might do something you don’t want them to do.”

Nonetheless, Mr Goudie suggested that examination within the council of the country’s redundancy laws don’t primarily concern the issue of mandating consultation between employers and the government but rather the issue of how much severance pay is given to employees made redundant.

“What Gibson and the government were looking at was to raise the payments of the severance ceiling,” he said. “Right now there are matches to 12 years of employment. The government wanted that to be increased to 30 years. We would be concerned about that because it relates to the ease of doing business and the cost of doing business in the Bahamas.”

As for Sandals Royal Bahamian and its decision to make hundreds of its employees redundant, Mr Goudie said he wants to gain a greater understanding of the issue before commenting on it.

A meeting of the tripartite council to discuss the matter will be held on Thursday, he said.

The council came into force last year.

It is intended to foster a more harmonious relationship between the government, labour unions and businesses.

The existence of the council is nonetheless a barrier to the government’s ability to unilaterally alter labour related laws.

According to the National Tripartite Council Act, the minister of labour must communicate the government’s policy concerning labour and industrial relations to the council and upon receiving such information, the council must consider the merits of the policy and decide whether or not to accept the recommendation.