Scores of workers of the Water and Sewerage Corporation staged a lunchtime protest in front of their Thompson Boulevard office on Tuesday, claiming that there are certain key issues that need to be addressed immediately.
The placard-toting workers were led in their protest by President of the Bahamas Utility Services and Allied Workers Union (BUSAWU) Carmen Kemp, who announced that the members are now on work to rule, which means that they are not prepared to go beyond the call of duty or work overtime.
“This is the beginning and it would intensify if our issues are not addressed,” Ms. Kemp warned.
But the corporation’s general manager, Abraham Butler, expressed surprise at the announcement.
“We are hoping that workers would not go on go-slow, and that we would have the full cooperation and the full support of our staff as well as the union,” Mr. Butler said.
But Ms. Kemp claimed that 240 members of the corporation were “socially promoted” in a bid to help former president, Huedley Moss, get re-elected in May. But Mr. Moss loss the election to Ms. Kemp.
The new union president said the corporation’s management must resolve the promotion issue.
“Prior to us coming to office there was social promotion,” she said. “Two hundred and forty workers were given promotions not on the basis of merit. We considered it to have been done to pacify the former president.”
The union is also demanding that management “recall” the present merit pay system negotiated in the last contract and negotiate a new one with the new administration.
The system provides for workers to be paid based on their level of productivity.
Ms. Kemp said that proper procedure is for the members to get an opportunity to ratify such clauses before they are signed off on.
“It was never ratified,” she claimed, adding that many members did not even know about the new industrial agreement until they saw it in the press after it was signed.
She also claimed that management is disrespecting the new administration and is still treating Mr. Moss as if he is still the president of BUSAWU.
Additionally, the union president accused management of unfair hiring practices.
“They’re hiring a lot of [temporary workers] and contract workers unnecessarily,” she claimed. “There have been interviews for positions that were not advertised internally.”
But there are many other issues being raised by the union.
In fact, Ms. Kemp claimed that the union compiled a list of 50 issues of concern collected from union members across the country and submitted them to management for resolution.
According to Mrs. Kemp discussion were held with management on these issues, but no headway has been made to have them resolved.
Responding to the union’s claims, Mr. Butler said, “We are satisfied that there are no outstanding matters related to the industrial agreement and we know of no breach of contract, statutory laws or policies and procedures [being breached].”
He also confirmed that the corporation did receive the list of concerns a few weeks ago.
The general manager said it was agreed that the union provide an estimate of how much the demands would cost the corporation.
“To date the union has only provided cost for another promotion exercise that has been noted and will be held for further review once performance can be measured in accordance with the new Performance Management System (PMS) [or merit pay system].”
“We are committed to resolving some of those issues, but certainly we need to have the report from the union, the costing report”
He added in a statement to the press, “The corporation maintains that our intensions are honourable and we have embraced the union as a strategic partner and gave a commitment to respect the new team that was elected in May 2005, as we did the old team.
“The record will show that we have followed high ethical practices and demonstrated high standards of professional conduct.”
According to Mr. Butler, management has treated every employee in the Water and Sewerage Corporation with the utmost respect.
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
