The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ two main trade union groups have written jointly to the Prime Minister seeking an “urgent meeting” over a Court of Appeal ruling they claim will “cripple” organised labour.

The Nation Congress of Trade Unions (NCTUB) and the Trades Union Congress (CBTUC), in a show of solidarity, said they had reached out to Dr Hubert Minnis over the concerns created by last month’s ruling on a dispute involving Inagua-based salt harvester, Morton Salt.

Bernard Evans, the NCTUB president, and his TUC counterpart, Obie Ferguson, while flanked by union affiliates argued that the Court of Appeal ruling had effectively rendered all industrial agreements in the Bahamas null and void.

The verdict dismissed the Bahamas Industrial, Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union’s case against Morton Salt and, creating this latest controversy, determined that an industrial agreement is an employment contract.

Dion Foulkes, minister of labour, told Tribune Business yesterday that the matter would be referred to the Attorney General’s Office. He confirmed that Mr Ferguson had contacted him about the verdict and its alleged implications, but he had not had time to read it. “I had a meeting with Obie Ferguson along with my senior officers,” he said. “The matter also came up recently at the Tripartite Council general meeting last week. I have not yet read the ruling and I have not had an opportunity to advise Cabinet on it as yet.

“The matter will be referred to the Attorney General’s Office to have the considered opinion of the Attorney General, at which time the Government will make a decision on it. I have not had the opportunity to speak to Cabinet yet, so I do not want to commit the Government to anything.”

The unions yesterday argued that the Court of Appeal decision could not be ignored, and would not be accepted, by the trade union movement. “We are prepared to do whatever it takes to protect the Industrial Relations Act and all similar Acts created for the protection of workers who are the backbone of this great country,” said Mr Evans.

In a letter dated March 23, the unions requested an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister to address the matter. “The ruling renders all industrial agreements in the Bahamas, public and private, void and of no effect,” Mr Ferguson said.

“It was always the prevailing view that once an industrial agreement was registered pursuant to Section 2 and Section 46 and 51 of the Industrial Relations Act, it is binding in law on the employer, the union and the worker.

“The fundamental change as a result of the ruling necessitates an intervention by government forthwith because every day that passes, the workers are troubled over their rights and benefits they have accrued and accepted over these many years. This ruling takes us back to pre-1825 where workers were not allowed to combine.”

Mr Ferguson added: “We don’t know what the Government’s position will be, but in order to protect the workers and the unions in this country we had to file for leave [to appeal] and take this issue to the Privy Council.”

Mr Evans said: “The ruling has a crippling effect on unions. This state of affairs is disconcerting to say the least, and if allowed to persist for any length of time could lead to strong resistance from the working class and their leaders.”

Acting appeal justice, Sir Michael Barnett, found that the Industrial Tribunal was “obliged” to apply common law principles relating to contracts when analysing industrial agreements, which the unions argue paves the way for employers to “unilaterally” change the terms and conditions of worker contracts without fear of sanction.

“An industrial agreement is a contract. It is an employment contract,” Sir Michael wrote. “The Tribunal is entitled, nay obliged, to construe it in accordance with common law principles of contract law. The fact that it is given force by statute does not affect the way that the Tribunal must construe it. It is still an agreement. It is still a contract.”

That finding has created alarm throughout the union movement. The unions contend that common law principles cannot apply to industrial agreements as they are creatures of statute law.