By TANEKA THOMPSON
Tribune News Editor
tmthompson@tribunemedia.net
FIFTEEN workers who were hired on a three-month contract at the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation were let go yesterday after their contracts expired, The Tribune understands.
According to a well-placed source in the Minnis administration, the workers were Progressive Liberal Party “operatives” all hired just before the May 10 general election.
The source said the workers were not fired, but the Minnis administration decided to let them go once their contracts ended.
The Tribune was told some of the workers were upset and were seen crying at the property.
BAIC Executive Chairman Miriam Emmanuel did not comment when contacted yesterday.
This is not the first-time workers hired by the former government have been let go, as the Minnis administration is focused on reducing recurrent expenditure and unnecessary costs.
In early August, the Ministry of Tourism made 11 workers in Grand Bahama redundant. About two weeks earlier the ministry reduced its staff count of employees abroad by 12 as part of a restructuring exercise.
And in late June, Minister of Public Service and National Insurance Brensil Rolle said 21 workers at the National Insurance Board (NIB) would be terminated, as their contractual agreements were set to expire in the following days.
At the time, he said the group was a part of the former Christie administration’s pre-election hires, adding that they were engaged about eight to 12 months ahead of the May 10 election.
He also revealed in June that officials were looking into the files of 1,700 persons who were on contract.
Last month, Minister of Finance K Peter Turnquest told this newspaper the public sector has been “burdened” with people with “legitimate expectations,” adding the Minnis administration will “unfortunately” have to address the problem.
“Our hope is to regularise as many of the contract workers as we can into the system,” he said at the time. “It’s unfair for them to be hanging out there with no real safety and security as to their employment going forward.
“By the same token, we recognise that we will have to rationalise the public service. We cannot burden the Bahamian people with resources that we already have and that we may not need. That’s all part of this process we are going through, (finding the) right size of government. We have to figure out how we can reallocate some of that human resource. To the extent that we have excess capacity then we are going to have to deal with that,” Mr Turnquest said.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 4 months ago
The previous Chairman and board members of the BAIC clearly abused their public office and the public trust by allowing these temporary workers to be hired in the first place, presumably as part of a much grander scheme of election fraud ("vote buying") by the corrupt Christie-led PLP government in the run up to the last general election. Someone must be held accountable and responsible; the usual lame excuse from the former BAIC board members that "They could not stop these hirings because they feared for their standing in the PLP and very much wanted to continue receiving their pay and benefits from the PLP government" is no justification for the wrongful temporary hirings. Such an excuse must therefore rightfully fall on deaf eyes and the chips must be allowed to fall where they may under the rule of law.
DDK 7 years, 4 months ago
If the workers' contracts had expired then why are they so upset? Were they not told theirs was only temporary work or were they just hopeful that the work would become permanent? Were they misled by Plunder Loot Pillage? I would have thought they would be grateful that, under the corrupt hiring circumstances, their contracts were in fact honoured.
CatIslandBoy 7 years, 4 months ago
It never ceases to amaze me how so many Bahamians feel entitled to certain benefits and positions. I'm sure that the PLP helped to foster this attitude. I would not be surprised if these temporary hires were not promised continued employment if the PLP had won the election. So sad!
licks2 7 years, 4 months ago
I saw one of the purportedly permanent employment letters in the tribune this morning. . .any public service worker will tell you right off the bat that "tha een no public service letter bouy". . .that document did not come from the Department of Public Services. . .signed by the GG. . .it is hard to say where them letters came from. . .they are not standard DPS hiring letters. . .of which every public services worker must have to be hired in the public service sector! Whoever hired them people lied to them about permanent jobs at that department!!
birdiestrachan 7 years, 4 months ago
These are human beings. I would like to know the savings as oppose to paying human beings with family members to support. This is the mean FNM in action. Why would Bahamians vote for someone who said he could not find Bahamians to run his shops.
But they said it is the peoples time. so they decided to roc wit doc.
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