Angry assistant engineers with the Ministry of Works staged a sick-out on Tuesday after taking “grave exception” to comments made by Director Melanie Roach.
A group of around 12 refused to report to work, claiming that ‘locals’ should be offered the $50,000-a-year jobs for professional engineers that are being advertised in Caribbean countries, according to a Guardian source.
The assistant engineer said that overseas staff being recruited did not possess the necessary qualifications to do the job.
She added, “They are not as well qualified as local workers.
“The Jamaicans and the Trinidadians are simply registered local engineers, they don’t go through the grueling process that we have to go through to get our certification,” the source added. “We don’t have a local board as yet and that’s the problem.
“We’ve been fighting for that for 30 years now. These people are only registered by their local boards, they do not have the required qualifications.”
The sick-out came on the heels of remarks made by Director Roach. She claimed that the government has scoured The Bahamas for qualified engineers to fill the vacancies. “I have searched under every rock, up in every coconut tree, every sandy Cay in The Bahamas and nothing, absolutely nothing. No one is interested.” Ms Roach said.
Her quote has “irritated” many assistant engineers in New Providence and sparked yesterday’s protest.
“That is not true,” the source said. “We knew nothing about them [government officials] looking for engineers. We had a sit-in yesterday and today we’re having a sick-out to show them that we will not take this sitting down.”
The assistant engineer added that for many years local staff had proved they were more than capable of doing high-end jobs. She pointed out that local assistant engineers had been heavily involved in the airport and Harrold Road projects.
President of the Bahamas Society of Engineers, Cyprian Gibson, backed up the views expressed by the Guardian’s source.
He pointed out that there was no way for assistant engineers in The Bahamas to move up the ladder.
“For years, we have been victimised by the government when trying to advance in the field,” an assistant engineer told the Guardian. “The promotional structure within the ministry keeps us at the assistant engineering level. A programme needs to be established where engineers can be in a position to obtain the highest certification.”
After claiming that there were no Bahamians qualified or willing to do the jobs, the Ministry of Works launched an ad campaign throughout the Caribbean in a bid to recruit 17 professional engineers and eight surveyors.
An article published by the Jamaica Gleaner headlined, ‘Jamaicans jostle for Bahamas jobs,’ said, “Jamaicans have been queuing up as The Bahamas government is on the hunt for engineers and surveyors.”
The Guardian then revealed yesterday that Director Roach’s remarks in Tuesday’s edition had left Ministry of Works assistant engineers furious. Other engineers also felt the Ministry of Works should have done more to attract new Bahamian staff.
“How can they bring in foreigners when they have what they need right here,” one engineer said. “When they [the foreigners] arrive we have to train them anyway, they don’t even know what they came to do.”
By: IANTHIA SMITH, Nassau Guardian Staff Reporter
