The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Trade union leaders yesterday warned that any extension of the COVID-19 Emergency Orders will have “a chilling effect” on the Bahamian workforce with 60 percent of hotel union members still furloughed.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business that he was especially concerned for furloughed workers given that allowing the emergency orders to remain in place beyond their August 13 expiry will automatically also extend their temporary lay-off period.

With the Employment Act provision requiring companies to provide full severance pay to furloughed workers after 90 days thus still suspended, and government unemployment benefits of $100 per week only lasting until end-September when the Department of Social Services takes over the responsibility, Mr Ferguson questioned the survival prospects for persons still at home.

“If that is done, it will have a chilling effect on the workforce in this country,” the TUC president added. “Obviously the level of income is at an all-time low, and the right to lay people off will be suspended as these protocols will still be operative.

“It will have a serious effect on the workers, especially those still on furlough, and one would have thought with this kind of adjustment or change the unions ought to have been consulted. The Government has chosen not to discuss it with the unions, and records will show they have not met with the unions from about March 2020.”

Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU), yesterday voiced surprise that the Emergency Orders could be extended even though The Bahamas is dealing with skyrocketing COVID-19 cases that are threatening to overwhelm the public healthcare system.

“That’s not a good thing for the workers,” he added of a possible extension. “They continue to be in limbo, that’s what it does. That doesn’t signal a good sign for workers in general, especially those at home. I can only say that for Atlantis and the hotels where we are represented, we have at least 60 percent of our membership that are still out, not the entire bargaining unit.”

Renward Wells, minister of health, yesterday said the Government is still assessing whether to extend the Emergency Orders in light of the latest COVID-19 case spike. He said: “Those are decisions really, collectively, for the entire Cabinet to make. Obviously, as I would have said on Friday, for us this is not a static situation.

“It is a very dynamic situation, and in dynamic situations, that means decisions are made as we go along based on the initial conditions, the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

“So, as we approach August 13, the Government will assess, reassess, look at where we are, where we want to go economically, where we want to go nationally and, in our social sphere, the mental health of the Bahamian people.

“How do we see ourselves from a legal standpoint being able to move forward and still there are rules, regulations, that keep our people safe? So we’re going to look at all of that in the sphere of the context of continuing to maintain the health, safety and well-being of the Bahamian people as best as we can.”

Cabinet ministers had previously said the Government was hoping not to extend the emergency powers, but the latest surge in infections - with 75 more recorded on Monday - may well prompt a rethink as the public healthcare system becomes overwhelmed.