By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

STRIKE action by the employees of the National Insurance Board has been postponed until further notice, according to Director of Labour John Pinder.

Mr Pinder said yesterday there were some illegalities with the NIB strike vote.

"The NIB strike poll was postponed. There were some illegalities with the whole matter and the NIB president has been advised of it so as soon as they correct the situation and apply for a new date then they’ll go ahead and have it done then if the matter is still outstanding," he said.

On Tuesday, employees of the National Insurance Board protested after negotiations for a new industrial agreement failed.

Speaking to reporters outside NIB headquarters during the workers’ morning tea break, Ghion Roach, Union of Public Officers (UPO) president, said they walked off the job because the union wanted to send a message.

The workers planned to have a strike vote on Friday morning.

Mr Roach said: “We’ve been ignored for too long; we’ve been disrespected, and we’ve been disregarded. The union has not been dealt with fairly and we’re here to let management know this Friday the union is prepared to take it to the polls and have a strike vote. The outcome of that vote will be ‘yes’, and we will send the message loud and clear.

“The main issue is the executive managers refuse to come back to the table. We’ve had stalled negotiations from April. The matter has been intervened by the Department of Labour and it’s now October and we still haven’t had no resolution.”

He added: “We had a contract that expired December of last year. We went back to the table in February – negotiations stalled in April. We’ve been trying to get the director back to the table, her team and her, and they have outright told us ‘no”.”