The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Consultant Physician Staff Association is hoping for “a more positive outcome” after sharing concerns over the union’s outstanding issues with labour consultant Bernard Evans.

As one of the three unions to have met with the prime minister so far, Dr Charelle Lockhart, CPSA president, said while she received acknowledgement by the permanent secretary that the union’s concerns have been heard and forwarded to the appropriate parties, she was “disappointed” by the response, referring to it as a “stall tactic”.

“So we did get a response from the permanent secretary for OPM,” Dr Lockhart said. “He did acknowledge our email, but not really giving us any information. It was a bit vague.

“His response was very vague, saying that they referred our matter for action to the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the Ministry of Public Service. So that was not the response we were looking for. We were quite disappointed at that response because really the only thing that I wanted them to do was say, ‘yes, we acknowledge these are the things the Prime Minister agreed upon’ so then to engage the PHA and further negotiate. So we were certainly disappointed.

“I feel like it’s a stall tactic because, you know, sending back to the Ministry of Wellness, the public service is not helpful.”

However, during a recent meeting with the Department of Labour, the union’s grievances were presented and Dr Lockhart said Mr Evans “trying to clarify what the response means”.

“To be honest with you, I absolutely love the Labour Minister,” Dr Lockhart said. “I think she has been doing a phenomenal job. I think that she is honest in her dealings. I just think that unfortunately, because of our system and the way we do things, there are some things that she would like to see get done that just are not getting done because of the system that we work in. We were able to present our concern to her. She acknowledged our concern. There was a labour consultant there, Mr Evans, who we’ve been working with all of this time and he did say that we would have gotten a response from the permanent secretary, which we got. It just wasn’t the response that we expected.

“So once we got the response, I did reach out to him for immediate clarification because I was disappointed in the vague response. And he is currently trying to clarify what the response means and to kind of get us closer to what it is, where it is w indeed to get.

“I think that when we have conversations face to face with the different groups of people, whether they be Minister Glover-Rolle, whether they be the prime minister, whether they be the financial secretary, we always get a positive feel from the meeting and then the follow up is what is disappointing. Whatever they came up with or however they respond to us turns out to be a disappointment. So my hope is that the conversations that I’ve been having with Mr Evans will have a more positive outcome.”

Trade Union Congress president Obie Ferguson said he can’t explain why meetings with the prime minister have stopped but unions “are very, very unhappy and they’re very annoyed”. He reiterated that 14 unions have their strike certificates and “a strike vote doesn’t mean that there will be a strike tomorrow morning” however they “can strike at any moment”.

“We agreed that we would meet and every time we meet, it would be three unions,” Mr Ferguson said. “So you figure out, if every other day we meet, from the time when we last met, all of these issues would have been resolved by now. But we haven’t met since we met with the doctors and the air traffic and the management of RM Bailey Park. Those matters, in my view, I thought they resolved. I can’t speak for the prime minister. I don’t know why we haven’t continued to meet. Maybe his schedule, I don’t know. I can’t speak to them. What I do know, we have not been meeting. The unions are very, very unhappy and they’re very annoyed.

“So what I’m saying [is], you don’t strike just a strike. You strike when there is an impasse. In other words, if you fail to meet with me or I fail to meet with you… the reason why you take strike votes is to ensure that the people who go on strike, they do not get terminated. Well, a strike vote doesn’t mean that there will be a strike tomorrow morning. But if you are able to reach agreement, if you are able to meet to discuss and to finalise issues, then you can strike at any moment.

“All I’m saying is that this is not a game we’re playing. This is a reality. These are workers, and our job is to represent the workers of the country. When you have a strike vote and it’s taken by the ministry and the vote is cast into the president of that union, it’s up to the president of that union to decide when it would be most appropriate. But what happens, we have agreed to resolve these matters collectively. Not one union or two unions. We agreed that if we’re going to go and strike, all of the union is going to go and strike. That’s the position we have taken.”

Mr Ferguson, who had been hoping to have union issues resolved by December 25, said meetings with the prime minister aren’t usually long and “if the PM schedule permitted it, we could meet at least two meetings, one in the morning, possibly one in the afternoon for about an hour. An hour each.”

These comments came after Prime Minister Davis said in relation to labour relations that “most of those issues are really minor”. He added that a strike is an “unnecessary step” and “should be resolved by just sitting around a table. These comments, Dr Lockhart felt, were “disconcerting”.