Clarifying the reasons for an ongoing dispute with management of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, the president of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union claimed on Tuesday that BEC’s executives have failed to hold discussions on the much-touted merit pay system.
When management and the union signed a $16.5 million industrial agreement last year, there was much said about the merit pay clause.
Labour Minister Vincent Peet said the new approach to rewarding productivity will go a long way in helping Bahamian workers to become more competitive.
Then Chairman of the corporation, Al Jarrett, added, “This is the first time a public service corporation is going to have included in its contract a pay for performance/productivity clause which will auger well for the entire staff of BEC, and the Bahamian people.”
But union president, Dennis Williams, who was a guest on the Love 97 programme, “Issues of The Day” on Tuesday, branded the productivity clause a ‘flam’, meaning that it was worthless.
Mr. Williams claimed that BEC’s management refuses to sit down to work out a formula for merit pay.
“Our contract [says] that if the union and management cannot resolve this matter by a certain time, we go back to square one, which is negotiating a fourth year salary increase,” he said.
“The Corporation on numerous occasions admitted to the union by way of writing that the union was not to blame because the corporation did not facilitate the meetings-so here it is. We were flabbergasted to hear all this talk about merit pay, and productivity, but [nothing every materialized]. The union [believes] that this merit pay system was just some flam which was offered by management to try and stall the negotiations process.”
But BEC’s General Manager Kevin Basden told reporters a day earlier that the new demands the union is making will drive the cost of doing business up.
“If these new demands are not properly and reasonably discussed there could be significant adverse impact on BEC and on the economy,” Mr. Basden warned. “We are already mindful of the skyrocketing fuel surcharge and its effects on the costs of electricity.”
He said that the union is making additional demands “over and above what was already agreed upon.”
While on the show, Mr. Williams said the union is also demanding certain adjustments to the corporation’s pension plan, although he did not go into specifics.
He further claimed that the union was offering concessions valued at $3.5 million.
“The union has made offers to the corporation as it relates to the pension plan not to cause any significant operational costs because of the adjustment of the pension,” Mr. Williams said.
“The union did its homework. It gave some recommendations to the pension committee, which it is a part of, so that if the pension plan is better suited to meet the needs of the electrical worker, it would not adversely affect operational costs [at] BEC.”
Explaining the concessions, he said, “The union-gave the government and BEC an offer to drop the salaries of incoming clerical and technical workers by a significant amount so that in the future that savings would be able to offset any costs for these matters which are at hand, which are really not inordinate in any event.”
Mr. Williams added that the union did not have to offer the concessions, but did so in good faith.
“For every dollar that BEC saves [it] would be able to pump it back into the community,” he said. “That is the mindset of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union. We are not trying to drive up any costs. If BEC would like to be very honest, the union is always slapped in the face because we have not even received one counter offer since we gave that very generous proposal.”
The union is also demanding that BEC’s management “normalize” working hours at the corporation.
“We are the only company in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas [that] has staff working more than eight hours per day inclusive of a lunch hour, and I think that’s a shame,” Mr. Williams said.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
