The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said correctional service officers with pending promotions would receive back pay dating to 2020.

He called on hopeful officers to “exercise discipline” until the announcements are made.

Correctional officers are often concerned about how long it takes them to get promoted compared to police and defence force officers.

Last month, Public Service and Labour Minister Pia Glover-Rolle said promotions for more than 400 Bahamas Department of Corrections officers won’t happen before the end of the year because officials must process each application.

Yesterday, Mr Munroe said he had a three-hour meeting with prison officers to discuss the promotion process.

“Anyone in this room would be quite happy to get a promotion backdated to 2020, which means they will be entitled to backpay for about three years,” Mr Munroe said. “The public service has its processes, and we’re going through that.”

Mr Munroe said the Department of Correctional Services should act like the disciplined force it is, adding that some believe promotions must be given at a particular time.

“I would hate to think that our correctional service officers cannot exercise discipline for four to five weeks that it may take to process their promotions,” he said.

Mr Munroe said prison officers reportedly called in sick recently because of the promotions issue, which has caused low morale among staff.

Mr Munroe said officers abuse sick leave every year, with officers taking all of the sick days they have left at the end of November. “It happens at the end of every year, simply because you have some public servants, some correctional service officers, who wrongly believe that they have a right to take every single sick day every single year,” he said.