By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

EMPLOYEES of the National Insurance Board are on “work to rule” after their strike vote was deemed invalid on Friday. 

Speaking to reporters outside of NIB’s headquarters during the workers’ morning tea break yesterday, Ghion Roach, Union of Public Officers (UPO) president, said Director of Labour John Pinder deemed the strike vote invalid because there were some technicalities with the application. 

However, workers voted in the poll on Friday, unaware it was not deemed valid.

Mr Roach said: “We were never notified of them cancelling and we continued to vote and I just wanted to let the people know and thank them for their continued support of the union that’s fighting on their behalf. 

“(Work to rule) means we will work on our terms. We’ve bent over backwards, we’ve rolled up our sleeves and we dug in to be disrespected. Now it’s time to kind of reduce the pace a little bit and we will go from there.”

He said the union will take legal action to determine the legitimacy of its strike poll.

“Our attorney Obie Ferguson is handling the matter and if we don’t have to take another poll we won’t. (We will do this) as long as it takes until we get our negotiations completed and we get what we feel we deserve we will continue to this work to rule.”

Mr Roach said a meeting was scheduled with Minister of National Insurance Brensil Rolle yesterday but there was a time conflict. 

“(We were supposed to have a) meeting (Monday), I made attempts to reach the minister all weekend. Of course, they were unsuccessful so we are going to see if we can get a meeting with him (today),” he noted.

When asked if he was optimistic about the meeting, the union president said no, but he is waiting to see what comes out of it.

He said: “We are only going forward on the way we’ve been treated in the past and the minister has not been helpful. I understand he said he was unaware of the failed negotiations, but we will see what comes out of this meeting (today). 

“The press release from the executive management that I read has been a little (disingenuous). I think the quote in there spoke to an actuarial review. For those not aware, that review was done nine years ago so they are quoting old numbers and pretending as if it is present facts or relevant information. So, let’s not muddy the water with old numbers, let’s get in the now and go from there.”

When asked if he was disappointed in the response from the director of labour, Mr Roach said he’s extremely frustrated in the response and the treatment from the Department of Labour.

He said: “We don’t want to get sucked into some of the silliness of people trying to save face. There have been several letters written to the Department of Labour and I think what he is referring to is maybe my initial letter.

“The Department of Labour refused to hold a poll in Abaco due to the state of the island after the hurricane. We’ve made several corrections with that and all of the islands were accounted for.”

Mr Roach said the vote held on Friday was unanimous in favour of a strike. 

He said: “We have 406 members, 227 would have voted here in Nassau. We got 226 yes and one no. We got 27 yes in Freeport and three yes in Rock Sound, Eleuthera. We already obtained the majority of the vote based on the islands that did vote on Friday. “

On Sunday, NIB called on the Union of Public Officers to de-escalate its issues to reach an amicable solution that won’t disrupt the pension and other benefit payments to residents who rely on NIB.

The agency said it will continue to cooperate in good faith with its staff union to assist the Ministry of the Public Service and National Insurance to conclude negotiations on a new industrial agreement in an environment where the board has to improve its efficiency targets and better manage administrative costs.

The statement came after a strike poll by employees was deemed invalid on Friday. At the time, Director of Labour John Pinder said there were some legal issues with the process.

Last week, NIB employees protested after negotiations for a new industrial agreement failed. Mr Roach said they walked off the job because the union wanted to send a message.