The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

TWO employees of the Bahamas Public Services Union accused the union of failing to pay them what they were due.

The employees joined former Director of Labour John Pinder and his We Care team outside BPSU’s building yesterday. The group wants to replace Kimsley Ferguson and other current BPSU officials.

BPSU elections will be held on September 29.

Melverne Davis, a former BPSU manager, said she was employed for 37 years before resigning in 2021. She said after having back surgery in 2021, she became fed up with how she was treated.

“I resigned because of the bad treatment I received from the president, Mr Kimsley Ferguson,” she said.

“On the last day of my employment, I was called into his office for him to speak to me. At that particular point, I was just fed up. I did not stay or stop to listen to what he had to say.”

She said after resigning, she did not receive a gratuity.

“I am being told that because I resigned, I am not entitled to any gratuity, which I feel is wrong, totally wrong,” she said. “I have received nothing, nothing from the union, absolutely nothing.”

Mr Ferguson declined to speak to The Tribune, saying he was unaware of the meeting being held outside his office.

“I have worked around all the presidents, but this is the worst one. He has no love, no respect for humanity,” John Noel Strachan, a worker with the union since 1978, claimed.

“Right now, payday has gone by from the 15th of the month, last week, and we haven’t received one cent yet,” he claimed. “He isn’t saying anything to us. It is be like that every other month. It takes a while before we get paid, but this the worst one.”

“We’re suffering, day in and day out. Our Christmas bonus, he cut it down. The money due to us, we don’t get it. This party has to go. This is the worst president I have worked around. He needs to go. That’s the bottom line.”