The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

TALL Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday likened unionists to “greedy hogs” as he decried the amount of money spent on salaries and benefits at government-run corporations.

Mr Miller, chairman at the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), appealed for union representatives and their members to consider the country’s fiscal challenges and plans for national development, adding that the status quo was unsustainable and “criminal”.

He told parliamentarians in the House of Assembly that he was astounded to learn that the government spent 70 per cent of its budget on salaries and benefits, given that the expense was 55 per cent in Jamaica, and 40 per cent in Barbados.

“At Water and Sewerage,” he said, “the government injects some $44m per annum to help defray expenses. Every year the Bahamian people spend $3m a year on their health plan. Some $7,950 we spend for each employee on the Water and Sewerage health plan.

“Worse than that they have some $22m in their bank account for their pension and didn’t put one single penny and you wonder why the country is in such a perilous state – and we up to 70 per cent and Barbados is at 40.”

He added: “When you go to BEC where we spend $6m on healthcare and employees don’t pay one single dime, $165m on pension, and you want to ask why we’re in trouble?”

“How can the country continue on this track when one group of people, when less than 3,000 workers could get the benefits?”

Mr Miller had a contentious run as chairman of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, now Bahamas Power and Light (BPL), frequently clashing with unions before he was transferred to WSC last year.

His comments came during his contribution to the 2016/2017 budget debate.

Mr Miller recalled a recent union meeting at WSC to discuss salary increases.

He noted that all of those attending earned more than $50,000 per year.

“How do you expect to get this kind of pay for basically being reconnectors and disconnectors?

“We buy our water from Consolidated Water, we don’t produce none.

“So basically their job is to make sure the water quality is good, make sure that it’s adequate, and if there is a pipe or something burst you go and repair it. They do a pretty decent job but not to warrant what they’re asking for.”

“I told them it’s best to be a little piggy, just accept what you get and live a good life but when you become a hog and you want it all you end up on the dining room table as ham.

“So be a good little piggy, it ain’t nice but it’s the truth,” he said.

“That’s just an analogy, I’m saying don’t be greedy, have a conscience, have a heart.”

He noted that BPL’s wage bill was around $48m per year with 1,200 workers, while WSC spends $21m a year for some 470 workers.

“How could you sustain that and why have we allowed it for so long?” he asked.

“Even in difficult times we still gave them what they asked for, even in the worst of times we asked our poor brothers and sisters to accept less. I dare say it’s criminal what we have allowed to happen in our country and we do it for the sake of saying we don’t want no problems with the union.

“So when the woman light getting cut off for $200 and she is in darkness,” he said, “or they neglected to turn her light off for 16 years and suddenly she is faced with a bill for about $10,000, how is she to pay that bill yet you put the hammer on her head?”

Mr Miller pointed out that WSC supplied less than 30 per cent of residents in New Providence, and did not service the Family Islands.

He said it was “dangerous” for foreign entities to have the monopoly on selling the “scarce commodity” of utilities in the Family Islands.

“We cannot continue to cater to the few at the expense of the many,” he said. “It is not fair, it is not right, we need to address these problems in order for the Bahamas to come back on the right foot, to be stronger, to enable parity and fair play to be the order of the day.”

During his contribution yesterday, Mr Miller added: “The government doesn’t have anymore money to give you, the government has to fix up the hospital, we got to look at NHI. I hope to God before this Parliament is finished with the five years that NHI will come into being.

“I’m very concerned about NHI.”