By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

and NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

Elated union leaders said they were “ecstatic” over the reforms to the Employment and Industrial Relations Acts tabled in Parliament yesterday, hailing them as a “victory for Bahamian workers”.

Bernard Evans, the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) president, told Tribune Business that “words cannot express what this means for us” after Shane Gibson, minister of labour and national insurance, tabled the amending Bills for their first readings.

“We are elated, we are ecstatic,” he said. “Words cannot express what this means for us, both organised labour and the average working person not part of a union,” Mr Evans said.

“This is a step in the right direction. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but the working world should be proud. This is a victory for every Bahamian worker. We are not satisfied where we are now, but this is true progression.”

Mr Evans said he was especially happy that the Employment Act’s existing redundancy ‘cap’, which limits worker compensation to a maximum of six months for line staff, and a year for managerial workers, had been increased by 67 per cent.

“You’re entitled to get compensation for every year you work for someone. You don’t lose,” the NCTU chief added.

Arguing that it was unfair for a worker who had given decades of service to receive the same pay-off as an employee who had worked for 12 years or less at the same company, Mr Evans said: “For someone who has been on the job for 20-plus years, you would rob that person of eight years of benefits. To remove that maximum ceiling meaning, that an employer would have to pay the person for every year on the job, is a win. That’s just one issue.”

Mr Evans warned that unions are “not going to stop. There’s more loopholes still to close”.

He identified one such as “loophole” as the ‘outsourcing’ of employees and company functions to independent contractors, suggesting that this could be used as a cover to dismiss employees under the guise of redundancy.

Mr Evans said ‘outsourced’ employees were typically hired at lower wages, and with fewer and less benefits, than when they were previously employed. He called for the benefits and pay of ‘outsourced’ employees to be “maintained for two years” subsequent to their transfer from the previous employer to an independent contractor.

“We want to ensure that true redundancy is true redundancy,” he added. “Through the Bills, employees will have more notice for redundancy, but it still doesn’t solve the problem where people are allowed to outsource part of their business, continue to benefit, but the employee is unable to follow that job,” said Mr Evans.

When asked how he would respond to employer concerns over the reforms, the NCTU leader said that if the Bahamas had “benevolent bosses” there would be “no cause to have these laws in place, but people are taking advantage of employees”.

He added: “Most employers would say that their greatest asset is their employees. Most would say that. If that is the case, then they ought not to feel bad when it comes to taking care of employees in their best interests.

“Clients often stay with companies because of the relationship with the employees. If it were not for the employees many companies would fail, but they never get recognised for that.

“We’re hopeful that with these laws employers will come around to recognise they’re not an impediment, but something fair that needed to be structured, so that anyone coming to this nation to set up in business cannot take advantage of our people.”

Darren Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) secretary-general,  told Tribune Business: “I believe that the amendments will be beneficial to the trade union movement. I believe that some of it would have evolved out of what happened with the Melia issue.

“We had asked for amendments for those issues that had affected us, such as timeframe for recognition and negotiation. There are some things that are definitely going to be beneficial for the union.”