By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday voiced hope that some of the 11 terminated Grand Bahama International Airport (GBIA) staff "may be reengaged".

Dion Foulkes, minister of labour, said: "I want to confirm that 11 persons at the GBIA in Freeport were laid off. They were mostly from the security department. I saw reports in the press with some 100, and I saw another report that said some 60. Eleven persons were affected. We hope that, at the end of the day, some of them may be able to be reengaged."

He added that the government was shortly due to make "an official statement" on Grand Bahama International Airport, having indicated before Christmas that it was exploring the possibility of acquiring a facility that needs $40m in post-Dorian repairs from its present owners, Hutchison Whampoa and the Grand Bahama Port Authority.

"The government will be making an official statement with respect to the status of the airport. I am not at liberty to comment any further on that at this time," Mr Foulkes said.

Dave Barr, president of the Grand Bahama Port Authority Workers Union, which represents the terminated employees, told Tribune Business earlier this week he had heard Hutchison Whampoa is planning to exit the airport. As a result, both himself and John Pinder, director of labour, voiced concerns that the 11 terminations were merely the start of a phased downsizing that could impact all 100 staff.

However, Dionisio D'Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, instead suggested that the airport's owners had merely taken a prudent business decision to align costs with reduced income due to the lack of aviation traffic post-Dorian.

Meanwhile, Mr Foulkes yesterday hailed the achievement of concluding three public sector industrial agreements. "I would like to say that I was very pleased to see over the last couple of weeks that there were three major industrial agreements signed," he said. "For most of 2019 they were very controversial.

"That's National Insurance Board, the union and the management. I would like to congratulate them, and also the minister (for the public service and National Insurance), Brensil Rolle. Also at the University of the Bahamas (UB) I would like to congratulate the union, and also the management, and also the PHA (Public Hospitals Authority) and the senior doctors. They also signed their contract.

"I would like to encourage all unions and employers and management: You are always going to have problems, you are always going to have conflicts and you are always going to have disputes. But the key thing is to talk it over and get it settled as soon as possible. As the minister of labour I am always available to assist with the negotiations. We have a team down at the Department of Labour that works extremely hard."

Mr Foulkes also reiterated the government's continued unhappiness over The Pointe's workforce composition, where the 70/30 labour ratio in favour of Bahamians - as stipulated in the project's Heads of Agreement - has been turned on its head and is not being adhered to.

Taking aim at the Bay Street-based project by China Construction America (CCA), he said: "We are very disappointed at the amount of non-Bahamian workers at The Pointe. I think the percentages are around 30 to 70 in favour of non-Bahamians. It is supposed to be the exact opposite.

"We have been in talks with the management at The Pointe. Their explanation is that they have some 22 Bahamian sub-contractors working at The Pointe, and they are including those [in their] numbers, the employees that work for those 22 sub-contractors, as part of the Bahamian component."