The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Power and Light has extended shop steward Wellington Porter’s suspension by another 20 days as it continues investigating allegations of gross misconduct, deepening a dispute with the electrical workers’ union amid the country’s persistent electricity disruptions.

Bahamas Electrical Workers Union president Kyle Wilson said union representatives were told of the extension during a meeting with BPL chief executive officer Toni Seymour. Mr Porter had initially been suspended for five days. Melvin Babb, manager of Fuel and Special Projects, who reportedly received a suspension letter for alleged gross misconduct, also had his suspension extended.

He said BPL cited a “pending further investigation” as the reason.

Although critical of the decision, Mr Wilson acknowledged that BPL was acting within the terms of its industrial agreement with the union.

Mr Wilson said the union welcomed BPL’s adherence to the agreement but warned: “What we’re saying is, don’t abuse it.”

The extension comes as the union continues to challenge BPL’s handling of an overtime controversy, arguing that employees cannot assign or approve their own overtime and questioning why managers and supervisors responsible for authorising payments have not faced the same scrutiny.

“These men do not sign their own overtime,” Mr Wilson said. “They don’t call themselves for overtime. Where are the managers? Where are the supervisors? Where are the people who manage these areas?”

Mr Porter made the same argument.

“I cannot put in for overtime,” he said. “Overtime is approved by management and signed off by management.”

He said he did not understand why BPL continued pursuing him and other workers he described as innocent.

Mr Wilson characterised the overtime controversy and disciplinary proceedings as “smoke and mirrors”, accusing BPL of focusing attention on workers while the electricity system continues to suffer serious failures.

“We’ve seen massive failures of the grid,” he said. “People are suffering. We have islands without power for weeks — weeks on end.”

He later described the situation as “the worst energy crisis in the history of this country”.

Mr Wilson also renewed allegations that bribes had previously been offered to him, saying Mr Porter and BPL manager Melvin Babb signed a letter as witnesses and that all three were interviewed during an investigation.

“What behooves me is I’ve been asking now for months on end for an investigation into alleged bribes that were offered to me,” he said.

Mr Wilson did not identify who allegedly offered the bribes, when they were offered or what they were allegedly intended to achieve. No supporting documents were presented during the press conference.

He questioned why BPL appeared to be pursuing its overtime investigation more aggressively than the alleged bribery matter.

“You want to investigate overtime,” he said, “but you don’t want to investigate gross malfeasance in the company where the names of leaders are being called in connection with bribery.”

Mr Wilson suggested the disciplinary proceedings could intimidate witnesses, although he acknowledged that he did not know whether that was BPL’s intention.

Mr Babb has also reportedly been suspended. Mr Wilson said he did not know the outcome of Mr Babb’s latest meeting with BPL because his matter was being handled separately.

Mr Wilson also defended his own overtime claims, saying forms must be verified through several levels of management before payment can be made.

“No employee can just take a form, take it to finance and say, ‘Pay me,’” he said. “That form has to be verified at my level. I am a senior technician. It has to be verified by two managers — a manager and his manager.”

He also denied an allegation that he claimed overtime while outside the country.

“Someone went as high as lying to our own prime minister,” he said, “claiming that I was off the island and put in overtime. That never happened.”

Mr Wilson said the union has filed disputes with the Department of Labour, consulted its legal team and contacted Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis.

He announced no industrial action, saying the union would pursue the matter through the courts, conciliation and other lawful channels rather than take steps that could further hurt residents and businesses already affected by outages.

“I try not to hurt the Bahamian people, the mom-and-pop businesses,” he said. “They’re suffering enough now. Persons are losing businesses, meat spoiling, ice cream melting.”

Mr Wilson said the disciplinary proceedings were also discouraging experienced BPL employees from helping respond to electricity problems.

“When they see things happening to their fellow brothers in the union, they are discouraged,” he said. “All of this is hurting the Bahamian people because they’re not enthusiastic to go there and work and be discredited for their hard work.”

He disputed suggestions that insufficient generation was behind the electricity disruptions, instead blaming problems with the transmission and distribution network operated by Bahamas Grid Company.

“We don’t have a generation issue,” he said. “We can supply the generation. There’s enough power being generated.”

Mr Wilson claimed BPL vehicles, equipment and tools had been transferred to BGC while network failures continued, and questioned what had been achieved through the investment in the company.

“We’ve invested hundreds of millions now,” he said. “We’ve turned over all of the Bahamian assets that belong to the Bahamian people — all of our trucks, all of our vans, all of our equipment, all of our tools — to this third-party entity, and it has all fallen apart.”

He praised the Davis administration for attempting to improve the electricity system but urged officials to reassess the arrangement and work more closely with BPL employees.

“If it has failed, we can recalibrate, we can start over and we can look at where we made the mistakes,” he said.

“We are the experts. We are the workers,” Mr Wilson said. “Had you sat down at the table first, it all starts with respect. If we respected the talent of the BPL workers, we would not be facing this fiasco.”