The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A trade union leader says the labour movement “must not encourage mediocrity” in the workplace as he urged patience when over trying to achieve all goals in industrial negotiations.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business that while unions may “not get everything we want when we want it” they should adopt a strategy of “taking it block by block, corner by corner, piece by piece” until eventually all targets are met by playing a long-term game.

“People who work in this country legally, whether on a work permit or whatever, should be protected - not from mediocrity but, if their employer treats them in an insensitive manner, that should be dealt with,” he argued. “But one thing I have told the union leaders they should not do is encourage mediocrity. It’s not good for the employer, it’s not good for the worker.....

“We’re trying our level best. We’re not going to get everything we want when we want it but we’ll take it block by block, piece by piece, corner by corner until we get there. We’re trying to work through industrial agreements as quickly as we can. Some are not going as expeditiously as we’d like but there’s a commitment to getting them done.”

Pointing to the public sector industrial deals negotiated during the first year of the Davis administration, Mr Ferguson added: “I think we’re on the right track and we’ll keep our focus on the economy. If the hen is not there, we’re not going to get any eggs. The economy is critical. We need that to function and, when that is up and going, and everything is moving along, we will make sure everything gets done.

“As long as there is a willingness to sit down and discuss.... The employer wants the best for his business, a reasonable return on his investment, and the worker wants a return on the work he has put into the organisation. It’s an equal argument that can easily be resolved if both parties enter into discussions to negotiate in good faith.”

The TUC president added that he was seeking to reduce industrial agreement negotiations to the main, controversial issues such as salaries, benefits and productivity clauses, rather than spend time going through parts that both sides know they can live with.

“You have industrial agreements of 45 pages. What seems to take a long time is the union and employer go through 45 pages and there is absolutely nothing wrong with them,” Mr Ferguson added. “It takes hours, days, months and years to get through when there are really only three sections of that agreement that have major concerns and require attention.

“That takes a long time, lengthening negotiations and creating expectations. You’re dealing with wages, you’re dealing with productivity, you’re dealing with medical insurance. Get down to the sticking points as quickly as possible so the country and economy can remain stable and united.”

Mr Ferguson last week asserted that the labour movement will push for a further minimum wage increase to $300 per week once the economy has rebounded “in a strong way”. He told Tribune Business he “sees no reason” why the unions should not advocate for such a rise once The Bahamas has fully recovered from the devastation inflicted by COVID-19 while affirming that achieving a “livable wage” remains the ultimate goal.

He conceded, though, that the latter is a long-term objective that will likely take many years to reach. And the TUC chief also agreed with the Bahamian private sector that, rather than increase the minimum wage by large increases at infrequent intervals as has been done to-date, it should instead be indexed to the cost of living and raised annually by an amount equal to local inflation.

These smaller increases would be more digestible, and easier for Bahamian businesses to swallow in their payroll expenses, with Mr Ferguson yesterday saying that increased employment and the wider economy’s welfare remain the union movement’s immediate priority.

Trade unions had pushed for a $300 weekly minimum wage, representing a 42.9 percent increase to the private sector’s $210, in negotiations over the latest increase but the Government opted for $260 - as Tribune Business exclusively revealed it would back in late August.

Signalling that organised labour, at least for now, is satisfied with the $50 per week or 24 percent increase, Mr Ferguson told this newspaper: “We recognise that the state of the economy is such where there is only so much it can take, and we’re going to work with the Government in that regard.

“When the economy begins to turn around, and turn around in a strong way, we’d seek to have those figures revised. Our concern principally is to have as many workers employed as possible. We know how many of our workers and members have been employed, unemployed and are still unemployed.

“As the economy moves, we expect that figure to be enhanced and brought to a level that’s acceptable.” The TUC president indicated the union movement will begin agitating for an increase, which will take the minimum wage to $300 per week or $1,200 per month, once 90 percent of the Bahamian workforce is gainfully employed - meaning that the jobless rate is around 10 percent, which is close to official figures just prior to the COVID pandemic’s start.