By Morgan Adderley

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

THE government's unilateral decision to terminate over 2,500 people from the civil service is a "concern" and represents a breach of union agreements, Bahamas Public Services Union President Kimsley Ferguson said yesterday.

Mr Ferguson also called Attorney General Carl Bethel's recent suggestion that these job cuts have saved the government $75 million, "hypocritical". The union leader questioned why these workers could not have been redeployed to understaffed areas of the civil service, instead of the unemployment line.

Concern

"Any time people lose jobs, it's a concern for the union," Mr Ferguson told The Tribune. "(However), we need to get an understanding first before we can make a definitive statement with regards to how many of those people are really public servants who (are) indeed a part of our bargaining unit, as opposed to persons who are contracted officers or persons who are hired based on a contract. But in any event, we are very concerned about persons who lose their jobs.

"Our position is we are finding out about them when these people are terminated. When in actuality, there should be consultation with the union when persons from our bargaining unit are either disciplined or let go, not terminated."

Mr Ferguson continued: "And so, the statement that we'd like to make is that the employer (the government) is having a disregard for the agreement that's in place when they terminate persons."

According to figures released by the Department of Statistics on Friday, unemployment has slightly increased from 9.9 percent to 10.1 percent. The latest numbers also show employment in the public sector decreased by 2,555 people during the survey period.

In a press statement released by Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Leader Philip "Brave" Davis on Sunday, Mr Davis called the job cuts "shameful" and said he believes the figure of jobs lost in the public service will double once the complete picture is revealed.

When asked by The Tribune if he thinks the reported number of job cuts is accurate, Mr Ferguson replied: "I really can't answer that accurately, because I'm not sure. And we really were trying to find a way as to how we could compile the amount of persons that were terminated.

"And again I'm going to go back to what I said earlier -- the union for whatever reason is not being informed when these exercises are taking place. There is no consultation whatsoever."

Mr Ferguson added: "We are supposed to see the Minister of the Public Service (Brensil Rolle) … either this week or next week. We would've made application to meet with him. He hasn't given us a definitive date yet, but we want to address these (concerns) so that we would be able to respond to matters.

"I'm hopeful we're going to have some sort of resolve in that regard."

When asked if the majority of people have been terminated from a specific area or across the board, Mr Ferguson said: "I know for a fact the Gaming Board so far. I've been given some speculation that something is supposed to happen at (Ministry of) Agriculture.

"There are some persons that would have been dealt with from In-land Revenue. I can't really comment on any other particular area because I don't know of any at this time. And again, that is why we have this concern."

However, Mr Ferguson is adamant the government is going about these terminations the wrong way.

He said: "They're breaching the industrial agreement . . . if a person was going to be disciplined, it should be done in the presence of a shop steward representative.

Discovered

"What we have also discovered as well is that the employer and their representatives are actually bringing in shop stewards, who really are not as versed as they should be, just to say that they have someone present while they are either disciplining or getting ready to terminate a person, just so that they could say on record that a union representative was present.

"There are certain things that transpire as it relates to people's employment that you have to call an executive, the president or the secretary general, and let them know what you are about to do."

Mr Ferguson also rebutted Mr Bethel's recent comments on the job losses.

Mr Ferguson said: "My concern is, if we're terminating people to save money, that's not something that the union is supporting because if that is the case and we're faced with unemployment then it's basically a hypocritical statement.

"And we're not in support of just terminating persons to save money. We're hearing comments like other government departments are in need of persons, they're understaffed.

"Well if the public service is understaffed in some areas, then why not just redeploy individuals who they would have considered or who they would have terminated to these various areas and train them? Give them the first option.

"And for these persons who are saying that they're overstaffed, and they're making positions redundant, there is a policy in place to deal with redundancy. And if you're overstaffed then redeploy them someplace else in the public service."