By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday pledged to “very swiftly” investigate allegations that unvaccinated Grand Bahama Shipyard sub-contractors are being “replaced” by foreign workers.

Dr Michael Darville, minister of health and wellness, said he and his Cabinet colleagues would “look deeply” into assertions by Kwasi Thompson, the east Grand Bahama MP, that third party contractual workers were being placed in “a very unfair position” after being barred from working at the Shipyard because they are not fully inoculated against COVID-19.

The former minister of state for finance charged that some of these sub-contractors were currently unable to access unemployment benefits, or receive severance pay, because their actual employer - who contracts them to the Shipyard -  is taking the stance that it has not fired them despite their inability to work.

Suggesting that there were “50 or so of these workers who have challenges with respect to this”, Mr Thompson enmphasised that he was not referring to the Grand Bahama Shipyard’s full-time staff who have the option of either being fully vaccinated or presenting a negative weekly COVID-19 test.

The industrial conglomerate, though, previously confirmed it had introduced a policy where all sub-contractors and third parties must be fully vaccinated to work on its premises in a bid to control the threat posed by COVID-19. Otherwise they will be barred from the site.

Mr Thompson, though, said of the sub-contractors: “We are also being advised that those employees not allowed to come to work are being replaced by foreign workers, which is a very serious problem as a Bahamian should not be disenfranchised from their employment if you made a decision not to take the vaccine or, in your current circumstances, you will not be vaccinated for a certain period of time.”

He called upon Dr Darville as well as Keith Bell, minister of labour and Immigration, and Ginger Moxey, minister for Grand Bahama, to intervene and said more workers may have been affected by the Shipyard’s policy than he is aware of.

Dr Darville, in response, said: “These are allegations that we will move very swiftly to substantiate and between myself, the minister for Grand Bahama and the minister of labour, we will look into the matter immediately.

“The rules are clear. This is not the first time we’ve heard of a company wanting to get ahead of the rules. We will look deeply into it in an attempt to resolve it immediately, particularly when you articulate that some Bahamians are being displaced because they do not want to get vaccinated.”

Mr Thompson, though, said the sub-contractors’ challenges did not stop there. “The sub-contractors are having a real challenge in terms of trying to receive unemployment assistance. They are not able to get unemployment assistance or severance pay.

“I don’t want to call the employer’s name, but that employer is saying: ‘I didn’t fire you. It’s the Shipyard that did not allow you to go to work’, and that is where the legal issue is coming in. Can you take a look at that as well.”

Speaking subsequently to Tribune Business, Mr Thompson said of the sub-contractors in that predicament: “They are caught in a very difficult position because they have done nothing wrong to warrant a dismissal or termination, and they have also not resigned their employment.

“The challenge is that the place where they work, they’re not allowed to work, and I’m advised that’s creating a challenge with their present employers saying: ‘I have not terminated you’. They are caught in a very unfair and difficult position through no fault of their own.”

Mr Thompson added that he had also spoken to Jobeth Coleby-Davis, minister of transport and housing, and Mrs Moxey about the licensing situation facing Freeport taxi drivers. He said the Opposition was calling for a three-month “notice period” that would allow the drivers to regularise their licence status.

“We [the former Minnis administration] were not enforcing where the taxi drivers had to licence their public service vehicles,” he explained. “We are now informed that the Road Traffic Department are now asking them to have their licences renewed, and if their licences are not paid they are unable to work.

“I don’t remember the exact deadline, but we are asking for at least a three-month notice period. That would be sufficient time for them to pay for their public service licence. Some of them have not worked for a very long time, so they have challenges because we were shut down and no cruise ships were coming to Grand Bahama.

“We want to say to the Government to provide them with sufficient time to pay for their public service licence. We have spoken to both the minister for transport and minister for Grand Bahama, and both have promised to look into the matter.”