The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

STATE Minister Myles Laroda, responsible for the National Insurance Board, says he is optimistic that a new contract between the agency’s board and staff will soon be finalised even though negotiations between the two parties have stalled.

Mr Laroda was contacted yesterday after the Public Managers Union (PMU), which represents NIB employees, held a meeting outside the agency’s quarters yesterday, reminding staff to hold the board’s feet to the fire so their outstanding issues could be resolved.

The PMU has in recent months been calling for NIB to finalise its industrial agreement, which it says expired over two years ago.

“All we ask for is that we be compensated for our services,” PMU President Cassandra Cartwright-Lewis said yesterday.

While most terms outlined in the new labour contract have been approved by NIB, board members are disputing the union’s proposed salary increases and bonus incentives.

“Negotiations for a replacement agreement began in June 2020, with the latest round of discussions between NIB and the PMU held on Tuesday, March 1, 2022,” NIB said in a statement yesterday.

“Unfortunately, NIB and the PMU remain at an impasse due to the failure to arrive at an agreed position on two outstanding articles which relate to salary increases and the payment of bonuses to eligible staff members and whether or not the payment of a bonus to staff ought to be linked to an objective and measurable corporate performance metric.

“NIB is principally of the view that the payment of bonus ought to be linked to the financial performance of NIB. PMU, on the other hand, is not fully receptive to this view.”

This was backed by Mr Laroda yesterday, who said while the government is committed to conducting fair negotiations, workers must also be reminded of the financial restraints plaguing the country given Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19’s impact.

Because of this, the state minister said NIB must strike a balance so it can meet all of its financial obligations.

“Our reality is no different than the 22 months that the FNM had to put an agreement in place. We are just emerging out of a double whammy of COVID, plus the economic fallout from it,” he told The Tribune.

“There are sometimes bumps in the road, but we will negotiate in good faith, but in negotiations not everyone will get everything they want, but hopefully there are things both sides can claim victory on, but again, my main point is there has to be a balance.

“We have to balance employees who are seeking better packages and I get it, but we also have to consider the most vulnerable in our society who, some of them, for years have not got any income and their only source of income is NIB and this is affecting them greatly.”

This comes amid claims that some NIB employees have recently been on a sick-out.

When asked about the issue yesterday, Mr Laroda said while he has heard similar reports, he could not confirm them.

However, he condemned such actions, saying the move is a slap in the face to the many hurting Bahamians who are forced to wait in line for hours to get assistance from the agency.

He said: “The one thing that could get in the way of fair negotiations on both sides is the removal of labour and I say that former and present in terms of the numeration of employees, public sector employees – notwithstanding the severe shocks, economic shocks that have occurred, no government employees have been sent home due to that and those who are working from home remotely have been paid while a large number of the public did not have that luxury of being paid on a monthly basis.

“I am all for fair negotiations, but it gets a bit disappointing at times when we see the most vulnerable people – some of them who have not worked in over two years are being further frustrated and you know we have managers that are involved, you know the leaders of the industry,” he said.

Meanwhile, NIB said yesterday that inadequacies with its computer system were largely to blame for delayed customer service, adding it hoped to resolve negotiations soon so it could “devote its full attention” to improving customer service and internal operations.

Yesterday, Mr Laroda was also asked to respond to claims made by the union that the Davis administration had hired an “inordinate number of persons” since being elected to office.

However, he insisted that new hires were engaged by the government to fill vacant positions.

“While the union is making statements that we are hiring all of these people — and I would admit that we would’ve made some hires — just as there are people who would’ve retired and would’ve left for other opportunities,” said Mr Laroda.

“The red herring as to who NIB is hiring as the fall back onto these increases in bonuses, I think the public could understand that due to people leaving, different skill sets and election has consequences because every government in this country has what we can say their people put in place in positions and I don’t think the last government nor this one, there has been any (widespread) redundancy of staff. Everybody has been paid within the legal means and we continue to do the same notwithstanding our present situation.”