The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian employers were last night anxiously awaiting the revised draft labour law reforms, the Chamber’s chairman acknowledging that the private sector needed to provide “empirical evidence” earlier in the consultation process.

Gowon Bowe told Tribune Business that the private sector, including the Chamber and the hotel industry, had fulfilled their obligation to submit recommendations and data to the Government by the agreed deadline, and were now awaiting the final revised Bills.

He disclosed that the Christie administration had promised to respond over the weekend or by this morning, but as at mid-afternoon yesterday, the private sector had heard nothing.

Mr Bowe said that “as long as there’s equilibrium”, and a solution that balances the interests of the private sector and workers, both sides could cope with the Employment Act and Industrial Relations Act changes.

However, he warned that the business community would not necessarily gain everything it wanted, adding: “We have to accept we will achieve some things, while others we won’t.”

“We completed our part of the equation in terms of providing them [the Government] with the information they’d requested, and the data they’d requested,” Mr Bowe told Tribune Business.

“They acknowledged receipt, and said they’re taking them into consideration as they complete the Bills for the debate and additional readings.

“We’ve asked them to provide us with the final version presented to Parliament, and inform us of the timing.”

The private sector previously warned that the Bills, which contain numerous labour-friendly reforms, would “cripple” and “bankrupt” many Bahamian businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Mr Bowe, though, told Tribune Business that “we did have, if you will, a meeting of the minds” where the Government indicated it would seek to balance the changes with the private sector’s interests.

“We expect it to be consistent with what we said to them,” Mr Bowe said of the final Bills’ content. “There was dialogue, give and take, and hopefully it all works out where there’ll be a happy medium as long as there’s equilibrium.”

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, also told Tribune Business that the Government appeared to “be looking for a balance between the employer and employee”.

The Chamber chairman, meanwhile, added that the private sector should have provided the Government with “empirical evidence”, and hard data, on the impact of the labour law reforms “in a more timely manner” - at the start of the debate at the National Tripartite Council (NTC).

“We will be looking at how the Tripartite Council works to ensure that greater empirical evidence is factored into the process going forward, as it was into the minimum wage,” Mr Bowe said.

“It is worth having a dedicated resources team at the Tripartite Council or the private sector that accumulates empirical data, information so there’s always a source of empirical evidence upon which to make decisions.”

Mr Bowe added that while the Tripartite Council “isn’t in its infancy”, it was “creeping as it learns to walk”, and needed to be strengthened as a mechanism to resolve labour-related matters in a collaborative manner.

Key among employer concerns is the 67 per cent, or two-thirds increase, in the Employment Act’s redundancy pay ‘cap’.

Line staff are currently entitled to a maximum 24 weeks or six months’ redundancy pay under the Employment Act, gaining two weeks for each year they have been employed up to the 12-year ‘cap’.

However, the Bill requires the ‘cap’ to be increased to 32 weeks (16 years) immediately upon enactment of the reforms. And, ultimately, the ‘cap’ for line staff redundancy pay is to be increased to 40 weeks some two years after the amendments are passed.

As for managerial staff, the existing 48 weeks (12 months/one year) redundancy pay maximum that they are due currently under the Employment Act is to be immediately increased to 64 weeks. Should the proposals pass, the ‘cap’ will ultimately be lifted to 80 weeks after two years.

The proposed reforms also impose bureaucratic notification requirements on Bahamian businesses, whenever they are considering redundancies, and a fine equivalent to 30 days’ extra pay for each terminated employee should these not be adhered to.

Employers will have to give relevant trade unions, or employee representatives, a “written statement” explaining the reasons for the redundancies and “facts” behind the move, along with the number and category of jobs impacted, and the timeframe over which the terminations will take place.

“Recognised” trade unions must be consulted “no later than six weeks” before the redundancies will occur in a bid to “mitigate” the impact, and determine the processes and procedures that will be used. The Minister of Labour must be given 30 days’ notice.

Meanwhile, the proposed reforms to section 51 of the Industrial Relations Act deem the terms and conditions of industrial agreements as automatically incorporated into individual workers’ contracts.

Other proposed amendments force employers to start collective bargaining talks within 45 days of receiving a trade union’s industrial agreement proposal.