The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Electrical Managers Union (BEMU) yesterday said its new five-year industrial agreement allows it to focus directly on the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) reform process.

Clinton Minnis, president of the 115-member BEMU, said he was satisfied the union was able to put the agreement negotiations behind it, given that it had obtained acertain level of job security. The previous industrial agreement had expired in September 2013, with talks over a new one starting a year later.

“We are satisfied as it is now, because we are getting ready for the reform, and we wanted to get the managers’ contract signed and registered so we can focus on the reform more seriously. That’s where our focus is right now. The contract is until 2018; from 2013 to 2018,” said Mr Minnis.

“We have conditional support for NHI until the Government fully implements it. There is some conditional language to ensure that we don’t lose any benefits in the transition to NHI, and that’s why we want the Government to work with the Bahamas Insurance Association and the doctors to ensure that our benefit packages are available based on what we enjoy now.

“We understand that the Corporation is broke, quite frankly, but we do have movements in our increment scale to extend that, so that our managers could have movements towards their salary sand pension benefits. Once your performance appraisal is good, there are some benefits that you would enjoy also.”

Paul Maynard, president of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU), which represents line-staff at BEC, said Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis had informed the union that PowerSecure was set to assume management control on February 1.

Mr Minnis said the BEMU wanted to ensure its new industrial agreement was “as tight as possible”.

“We wanted to make sure that the contract was signed and registered. That gives us a certain level of job security. We don’t know what we are going to be dealing with with PowerSecure, so we want to make sure that our contract is as tight as possible to withstand pressure from anyone,” he added.

“We plan to meet with the Government shortly. We are trying to get a meeting to confirm the way forward. It looks like that is imminent. We will assess what they have to say.”