By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas General Workers Union (BGWU) is threatening industrial action if the government fails to resolve outstanding salary increments and restore lapsed health and life insurance coverage for employees at the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC).

BGWU president Linda Sands said workers have only received partial payment of salary increments approved since 2022 and have been without health insurance since October 2024, leaving many to pay thousands in out-of-pocket medical expenses.

“There will be industrial action,” Ms Sands warned at a press conference Friday at BAIC headquarters. “These people want their monies. Everybody else is getting money. Why can’t these people at the lower level be okay too?”

She said the union has made repeated inquiries to Financial Secretary Simon Wilson, who signed off on a Ministry of Finance directive in November 2022 confirming increment payments for employees earning under $13,900 as of June 30 that year. The directive outlined two immediate increments effective July 1, 2022, with additional increases scheduled for 2023/24 and 2024/25. However, only half of the promised payments have been made.

“It is now 2025, and we say to you, Mr Wilson, can you answer as to why the balance of the increments has not been paid?” Ms Sands said. “We leave that at your doorstep.”

Despite two meetings with the Department of Labour and other stakeholders, the matter remains unresolved.

Ms Sands also blasted the suspension of staff health and life insurance, saying reimbursements exceeding $16,000 remain unpaid. Some workers, she said, have spent as much as $4,000 to $5,000 out of pocket for care that should have been covered.

“Growing up, my grandmother told us all the time, a promise is a comfort to a fool,” she added. “These members are tired of fishing in their pockets to pay medical bills that should be covered.”

Other union concerns include delayed performance appraisals, long-overdue additional increments, and chronic understaffing in the janitorial department, where three of ten workers were let go without replacements, leaving the rest to shoulder the full workload, including COVID-19 safety protocols.

Ms Sands accused the government of excluding BAIC and other quasi-government agencies from recent public service salary increases, despite rising costs and staffing shortages.

While the Ministry of Public Service clarified in June that recent public sector raises apply only to core civil servants, the union maintains the exclusion is unjustified. The 2025 salary review provides two to eight percent increases for central public service staff, with middle management increases beginning in June.

BGWU is demanding full payment of salary increments, reinstatement of insurance coverage, and urgent resolution to staffing shortages.

“If it is not done today, then I do not have to tell you what is going to happen,” Ms Sands said.