By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian trade unions were yesterday urged to shed their “old world mentality”, a former Chamber chairman arguing that their value to worker protection had “diminished” due to stronger labour laws.

Robert Myers, now a principal with the newly-formed civil society group, Organisation for Responsible Governance (ORG), called on unions to focus more on providing “added value” for their members.

Rather than disrupting commerce with strikes, or threats of industrial action, and pushing for worker benefits that businesses will struggle to sustain, Mr Myers told Tribune Business that Bahamian trade unions should restructure themselves into “labour cooperatives”.

“The benefit of unions over the decades has diminished as the labour laws have improved,” Mr Myers told Tribune Business.

“The better the Fair Labour Standards, the less need for unions. Unions were there to protect the worker, but that’s what the Fair Labour Standards are for.”

Much of the Fair Labour Standards Act was incorporated into the current Employment Act when it was repealed, with the latter coming into effect in 2001. The latter legislation has been strengthened several times since.

“I know they’re not going to like hearing that,” Mr Myers said of the likely trade union reaction to his comments, “but I’m telling them where they’re benefits are.

“If unions are out there training their members, making them more efficient and better educated, that’s great, but I don’t see much of that.

“That’s what they should be doing, acting as a labour co-operative operated on behalf of their members, getting them insurance benefits, providing them with greater education and value for money,” the ORG principal urged.

“Get them bulk prices on various products and services. There’s plenty of opportunity for unions, but they need to start shifting from an old world mentality to a new world mentality.”

Mr Myers said the “new world mentality” required Bahamian trade unions to raise their horizons, and focus on the greater good of this nation, rather than the narrower interests of just themselves and their members.

“I’d encourage unions to start taking a national approach as opposed to a union approach,” he explained to Tribune Business. “Be more holistic in your views and the services provided.

“Unions should provide value to their members, just like businesses have to provide value to their customers. The world is about agitating for change that’s going to benefit the nation, and not necessarily the politicians, the unions or the private sector, but move the country forward.”

Workplace relations in the Bahamas have periodically been stormy, especially where government corporations and agencies are concerned, with trade unions often able to get their way against governments concerned about general election votes.

In a bid to develop more harmonious labour relations, the National Tripartite Council - featuring representatives from the private sector, trade unions and the Government - has been formed as the body that will address all workplace-related issues and legislation in the Bahamas.

However, the Government’s latest proposed labour law reforms, which many view as a “knee jerk” response to Sandals’ termination of its 600-strong workforce, has aroused immediate controversy - especially among the private sector.

The Christie administration wants to make it mandatory for employers to provide two months’ (60 days) notice to itself and the relevant bargaining agent (trade union) whenever they are about to make 10 or more workers redundant, with failing to do so becoming a criminal offence.

And, joining this proposal in the “emergency legislation” the Government wants to bring to the House of Assembly by September 30, the Government also wants to remove the Employment Act’s existing ‘12-year cap’ on severance/redundancy pay.

The legislation has yet to be discussed by the Tripartite Council, but the trade unions have used the Sandals situation to push the Government to address numerous outstanding grievances, and are warning that they will “shut the town down” unless their demands are met.

Speaking out amid this volatile atmosphere, Mr Myers said too many Bahamians generally were resistant to change because it did not benefit their own, narrow interests.

“They’re resistant to change because they benefit from it. They benefit from the status quo,” he told Tribune Business. “While they may benefit from the status quo, the nation gets left behind. And if that happens, we all suffer.

“If we have less tourism, less foreign direct investment, less banking and finance, we will have less GDP growth, and that affects us all. There are less homes and businesses to be built, fewer jobs. It hurts us everybody.”

Mr Myers said the Bahamas appeared to be a country that was ‘locked into’ its status quo which, with other countries making progressive reforms, meant this nation was losing ground on its competitors.

“Doing nothing is like moving backwards. It’s the same effect,” he told Tribune Business. “We have to improve. We have to be a country that improves in Government, improves in the private sector, improves the education system, improves our thinking.

“That’s why Singapore has jumped ahead by leaps and bounds. It’s continually challenging itself. That’s how New Zealand was able to pull itself out of a recessionary period. It reinvented itself, and is continually changing and evolving.

“We’re not. We’re stuck in time, and it’s just like moving backwards.”