By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie announced last night that the government will finally pay Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) officers for working 12-hour shifts in 2013 and 2014, with the first payment of the outstanding sum to be issued on May 29.

He said the second installment in overtime pay would come “in the next budget cycle,” but was not more specific. He said officers who have died or are retired will be paid in full.

The announcement comes days before officers head to the advanced poll on Wednesday.

His comments were made at a Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) mass rally at R M Bailey Park, hours after Police Staff Association (PSA) Chairman Inspector Dwight Smith accused the Christie administration of “killing the morale” of police officers, as he lambasted the government for not consulting with his organisation over the association’s proposal to save the government 40 per cent in overtime pay owed to officers for working 12-hour shifts between 2013 and 2014.

“In 2013, in the face of mounting criminality, we called upon the hardworking officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force to work extended hours in an effort to reduce the levels of violence in our streets,” Mr Christie said.

“In 2014, a number of officers brought an action before the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that officers were to be given compensation for working 12 hour shifts, which resulted in officers working to excess of 40 hours per week.”

Mr Christie said the court determined that those of the rank of

inspectors, sergeants, corporals and constables are entitled to and owed overtime pay or days off in lieu off compensation.

“In reviewing the options available to the government, it became apparent that issuing days off in lieu of pay would create a significant challenge in meeting our policing objectives,” Mr Christie said.

“Consequently the government has determined that as it is not feasible to grant days off in lieu of overtime, it will pay police officers for the period of them working in excess of 40 hours during the period of 12 hour shifts.”

Earlier yesterday, Insp Smith told The Tribune the government has yet to consult with the PSA for a potential agreement on its proposal for officers to be compensated at a set rate of $15.75 per hour, as opposed to the standard hourly/daily rate owed to each officer, respective of rank, for working the controversial 12-hour shifts.

This, he said, makes it seem like officers are “begging for what they’re entitled to, what they already worked for.”

Insp Smith also said officers are “real upset” over the recent promotion exercise in the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF), which he said excluded officers in the junior ranks. He said officers realise the government conducted the promotions “close to elections for them to win votes,” adding that he has “never seen the morale this low” in all his years as an officer.

“It’s real low,” Insp Smith said of the officers’ morale. “And persons are frustrated with the system and how they’re being treated.”

Last May, the Court of Appeal upheld a landmark Supreme Court ruling ordering the government to compensate police officers for working 12-hour shifts at different periods in 2013 and 2014. The RBPF introduced 12-hour work shifts for officers in an attempt to get crime under control in September 2013.

The appellate court had dismissed the government’s appeal against Supreme Court Justice Milton Evans’ ruling that a Force Order issued by former Police Commissioner Paul Farquharson in 2003 was relevant to the case as it mandated that public officers be paid when they work for more than 40 hours in a normal working week.

At the time, the PSA had estimated that if the choice is made to pay the officers, the government could end up paying as much as $16.4m in overtime pay. However, attorney Wayne Munroe, QC, who represents the PSA, said at the time that Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade would determine whether to pay officers or to give them a proportionate amount of time off.

The Supreme Court ordered that the compensation be received within a year.

Yesterday, The Tribune obtained a letter from Mr Munroe to Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson, in which the association proposed that police officers be paid overtime worked at the “public service rate for special events,” which amounts to a set rate of $15.75 per hour.

In the letter, Mr Munroe submitted that the association’s proposed rate would amount to a 40 per cent saving for the state, considering that the standard rate of payment would be the hourly/daily rate for the officer concerned. So, for example, the association noted, a junior constable’s “time back” would be $24.50 per hour.

“We would suggest that it is in the financial interest of the state for the officers to be paid, thereby realising a 40 per cent saving for the state,” Mr Munroe noted in the letter. “May we hear from you on this proposal?”

However, Insp Smith claimed that the government has not consulted with the PSA over the proposal. Further complicating matters, Insp Smith said, is that a couple weeks ago, Commissioner Ellison Greenslade allegedly sent his own proposal to the government on what the plan should be with regard to the overtime pay.

Insp Smith claimed that a copy of that proposal was not given to the association, claiming that had one been given, “we would have been able to look at it also and maybe come up with an agreement of some payment.” Insp Smith said he instructed Mr Munroe to try to obtain a copy of that proposal, but to no avail.

Nonetheless, Insp Smith said a motion was filed for the government to give immediate attention to paying the officers; however it awaits a date from the Office of the Attorney General.

“I don’t know what it is the government wants to do, or what they don’t want to do, but there’s no consultation on it,” he said. “From the matter being before the court, and the court made that ruling, we have not yet sat with the government or administration to discuss this matter of the overtime. Because it’s not just paying … The court has already made that ruling that there must be compensation for overtime. So there is now future overtime that is going to come. So you need to put a policy in place to know how you will properly govern this so you don’t get back to this point of going back to court again.”

When asked if he felt that the upcoming election would only serve as a hindrance to the PSA’s efforts, Insp Smith said: “Well, you can’t say election two weeks away because the police go to the polls on Wednesday (for the advanced poll). What I think the main thing is, they’re killing the morale of the officers because it seems that they’re begging for what they’re entitled to, what they already worked for.

“And I’m telling you, if you notice I also see on social media, it’s almost like I’m being attacked also because they think that I’m negotiating slow or something of that nature and I don’t have anything to do with that …The overtime thing, there’s no consultation. I don’t know what’s going on at this point.”