By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

CIBC First Caribbean is now “looking to talk” after employees walked off the job to protest not having a collective agreement in place.

Theresa Mortimer, Bahamas Financial Services Union (BFSU) president, told Tribune Business that amid the industrial action taken by employees of the CIBC First Caribbean Bank yesterday the bank is now “looking to talk” about the employees’ longstanding issues and concerns.

Ms Mortimer said she was going to talk to First Caribbean yesterday to “see what we can get accomplished”.

“They have a collective agreement that has been outstanding for far too long now and it was like no one was hearing the employees and the union could only do so much. So it comes a time when the staff have to take matters into their own hand,” she said.

Taking matters into their own hands yesterday was what the staff members at CIBC First Caribbean did when they took industrial action against the bank, with the bank initially saying that they intend to “abide by the tenets of partnership” between them and the employees and union.

Ms Mortimer said: “I can tell these employees that they have gotten some attention, and so I’m waiting for the bank to call me back and talk like they promised. Hopefully, depending on how they do business we’ll know where to go from there.”

The collective agreement has been outstanding for over a year and staff at the bank “want it resolved immediately,” Ms Mortimer said.

“Throughout the entire 2021 they have been going to work without their agreement. I’ve been trying to get the bank to sit and talk, but they have time to go on vacation and be absent at the end of the year,” she added.

Ms Mortimer said the bank said they would call her  yesterday evening, “so after that I will be able to tell my members what’s going on. We’re waiting and watching.”

CIBC First Caribbean was supposed to respond to the industrial action after they had spoken to Ms Mortimer but they have not returned calls to this newspaper up to press time.