The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Public Service Union’s (BPSU) president has praised the Government for “bringing some level of dignity” to ‘unregularised’ civil service employees, and called on it to abide by established protocols when hiring temporary/contractual workers in future.

Prime Minister Perry Christie, during his 2016/2017 Budget communication, pledged that during the upcoming fiscal year the Government would look to bring the number of temporary and contractual workers in the public service to an “irreducible minimum”.

“Many of these workers joined the public service without the requisite qualifications and, through their own hard work and commitment, are making a valuable contribution to the public service and the country; they are deserving of being integrated into the public service.”

John Pinder told Tribune Business: “Finally, in this year’s Budget communication, the Prime Minister indicated that he has finally approved some funds for persons to be regularised. That brings some level of dignity to those persons.

“From our perspective, that puts them in the position where they can go to the banks, get loans and qualify for mortgages, and so that is a good thing. They can now borrow funds, and are in a position to get loans. That can be a boost to the economy from a banking perspective.”

The issue of contractual/temporary workers in the public service was recently highlighted in an Auditor General’s report, which found that the Government was not living up to its obligations to the 33 per cent of Department of Social Services staff who were initially hired via the Unemployment Assistance Programme.

Terrance Bastian and his team, in their two-year audit of the Government agency’s New Providence divisions, said 172 of its 515 active employees were still waiting to be ‘regularised’ as full-time public service employees.

Warning that it would be “egregious” for the Government not to alleviate the “continued unease” of these persons over their status, the Auditor-General said the present situation was also impeding their income-earning capabilities.

Mr Pinder warned the Government against repeating this practice going forward. “The Government is moving to regularise those persons, but it appears that they are about to repeat it again with the latest jobs programme,” he said.

“What happens is persons want to work for government and, while being paid by the Treasury, form this opinion that they do, in fact, work for government and this drags on.

“If the government changes and they don’t want to disenfranchise those persons, they get stuck in the system. Some of them don’t have the skill set to meet the minimum requirements for persons to be employed in the public service,” the BPSU chief explained.

“Others may have that and are looking for a much higher salary than the Government can afford. It brings a level of stress to people and the public purse. Persons become demoralised and they are not performing in the public service, but they are taking home a pay cheque any how.”

Mr Pinder continued: “We wish for the Government to discontinue the practice of doing that and follow the established protocols in the public service for persons to be hired properly and, where necessary, for part-time or relief workers you can do that.

“If you have a six-month project, when the six months expire you either issue a new contract or let them go, but that doesn’t happen.”