By EARYEL BOWLEG

and DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Staff Reporters

MORE than a thousand teachers failed to report to work yesterday, forcing six public schools to close early after Bahamas Union of Teachers President Belinda Wilson called for nationwide industrial action in a fight with the government over pay adjustments.

Education Director Dominique McCartney-Russell said 1,135 of the 3,186 teachers employed in the public system were absent — about 36 percent of the workforce. Most of the absentees were in New Providence, where 816 teachers did not report for duty. She described the figure as unusually high but could not say whether there would be repercussions. Government officials had privately warned that public servants who participated in the demonstration could face salary deductions and disciplinary measures.

Meanwhile, Labour and Public Service Minister Pia Glover-Rolle said there were no issues with call-ins from the wider public service even though Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) president Kimsely Ferguson had also urged members to protest.

The mass absences from schools came as dozens of public servants marched to Parliament after talks between the government and union leaders failed to resolve a payment dispute. Mrs Wilson and Mr Ferguson led the demonstration from the old City Market parking lot to the House of Assembly.

Among the demonstrators, janitress Geraldine Strachan fought back tears as she said she needed her pay urgently to see a doctor for congested lymph nodes and dental work. “My mortgage is $1,200. Tell me where do I go?” she said.

Ashanique Cash, a filing assistant at the Department of Lands and Surveys and a mother of three, said her office lacks air conditioning and workers are denied half days. “When am I gonna be treated fairly?” she said. “For me to have to come out here in the hot sun and ask for the bare minimum is crazy.”

She said one of her children, who is autistic, has been unable to receive needed surgery because of air conditioning issues at Princess Margaret Hospital.

Teacher aide Sharon McKenzie grew emotional as she described the challenges teachers face. “We have students who don’t have food. We have students who don’t have money. I see these teachers go above and beyond for these kids,” she said. “When we had the protest against the former principal at Carlton Francis, the administration came from head office to go inside the classroom. They ain’t last 30 minutes in the classroom. You can’t do our job.”

In Grand Bahama, several demonstrators said they were fed up with years of being overlooked for promotions and better pay.

Taronya, a social worker and BPSU shop steward, said she has spent 12 years in the Department of Social Services without a promotion. She said there is no upward mobility in the department. Although she was hired with a related degree, she said she is now being told a social work degree is required to move up — a qualification that would cost thousands of dollars. She said she refuses to return to school at her age just to earn a decent salary.

Alexandria Rolle, a teacher, said the government’s handling of the issue has been confusing since the prime minister announced the adjustments. She said it has been promises without delivery, questioning why upper management is being prioritised when those on the lower end have been struggling in toxic environments without proper resources or even air conditioning.

Veteran janitress Bethsheba Rigby, who joined the school system in 1997, said she feels misused and unappreciated. She said she was only confirmed in her position in 2013 after 16 years on probation and called the wages paid to janitors “a crying shame.” She said janitors are often the first to arrive and the last to leave, working to keep schools clean and safe while many remain neither permanent nor pensionable. She added that they often work under hazardous conditions without proper compensation or protective gear.

After nearly four hours of protesters waiting in Rawson Square, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis emerged from Parliament and was confronted by Mrs Wilson as he headed to his car, raising his hand as she tried to speak. It was a marked contrast to last week’s protest when he had stood with the union leaders, hand in hand, and addressed workers.

The renewed demonstration followed the Prime Minister’s cancellation of a scheduled Tuesday meeting with the BPSU and BUT, despite the parties having met the day before.

In a national address on Wednesday, Mr Davis accused some union leaders of “grandstanding and public drama,” saying one had publicly threatened industrial action before talks could resume. He emphasised that a salary review, the basis for the fight over pay, was initiated by him in his discretion, not by unions or any industrial agreement.

The tensions came after the government announced that workers previously excluded from pay adjustments would receive at least two increments in December, retroactive to September 1, 2025, with the amount varying by category. Officials said the adjustments were part of a broader effort to close the pay gap between the public service and the wider public sector, reflecting base pay increases of 8 to 31 percent over four years, including a 19 percent rise for college graduates such as nurses and teachers.

Phase one of the plan, focused on middle management, took effect in June, with phase two covering the rest of the service. The May 2025 Salary Review for Middle Management and Technical Officers examined 85 priority roles in the public sector, excluding teachers, nurses, doctors, and most frontline workers. The review focused mostly on senior officers.

Mrs Wilson, without evidence, said Mr Davis “lied” about how comprehensive the review was, emphasising the categories of workers excluded from it. However, Mr Davis noted during his address that the salary review did not include every category and said that the methodology underlying the report “will be applied to ensure increases are extended across the wider public service.” “That includes our teachers, whose hard work and dedication continue to shape the future of the nation,” he said. 

Mrs Wilson said union leaders asked specific questions during talks that the Prime Minister and his team could not answer, including how much money workers would receive and which categories would get which percentage increases. She noted that middle managers already earn about $104,750 annually, with some receiving $20,000 responsibility allowances, $12,000 housing allowances, lifetime medical coverage, pensions, and 15 percent gratuities, while many other workers “don’t take home $20,000 a year.”

“They are raping the Bahamian people and then they sit in their high towers and they try to send down edicts and threats,” she said. “We are here today to stand for the public service. There are approximately 17,000 that they said have not been paid yet.”

Mrs Wilson called the reported threats of discipline and salary deductions “very low,” saying: “Y’all are nasty toward the common man to send out some notice about salary cuts. It’s a threat of touching someone’s pocket that they know is what touches someone’s heart. And so you’re low, you’re nasty and you’re dirty.”