19 November 2001

As Opposition spokesman on Labour, I am increasingly concerned about the spate of layoffs that have occurred in the country in the private sector since the events of 11 September 2001 in New York. At an earlier press conference, I charged that Sun International was targeting Bahamian employees in what appeared to be a witch-hunt to rid itself of what it considered to be troublesome Bahamian employees. There appears to be an attempt throughout the private sector to blame a number of woes on the events of 11 September when the facts do seem to bear that out.

In the public sector, we have been warned by the Government that workers will not get increments this year. In service awards have been cancelled. This is a hard pill for workers in the public sector to swallow when they have been reading for the last three months reports of monies expended by Government politicians in order to accomplish a victory in an internal party political fight. Now that money has been squandered after that exercise, the workers in the public sector must suffer by losing their increments.

A recent survey by the private sector published in the Tribune last week indicates that there will be a contraction of some 20 per cent in the tourism and hospitality and services sector in the coming months.

This does not bode well for The Bahamas and the Government is not being aggressive enough in dealing with the economic fallout that is to come. The anecdotal evidence is there for all to see that persons in the hotel sector who have been working on one or two days per week since August have fallen behind on mortgage payments and electricity charges. There is no comprehensive and sufficient Government programme to address this emerging social problem.

I urge restraint in the private sector with regard to layoffs and I urge employers to follow the law.

Recently, a Union was recognised as the bargaining agent for Barclays Bank PLC. Now the task begins of negotiating a recognition and industrial agreement. This must be done quickly and expeditiously, without delay. The Minister of Labour should be strongly criticized for taking too long to make a decision, one that should have been obvious to all. It gave the impression that the Minister is taking the side of the employer.

Further, I wish to go on record that the PLP is concerned about the merger talks between CIBC and Barclays Bank. Not only have I warned before about the fact that this may be anti-competitive. But I am now concerned that the proposals put forward by Barclays Bank for separating employees may not comply with the laws of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

The Bahamas Government is warned that before approving any merger they must ensure that the rights of workers are protected. Barclays workers nor CIBC workers can be transferred to any new entity without their agreement in advance. If they are, they will be entitled to severance pay with notice based amongst other things on the length of service they now have with the company and their seniority. Barclays is seeking to impose a three-month redundancy pay in lieu of notice on employees who do not wish to transfer to the new entity.

We also say that both Barclays and CIBC should have by now briefed the Leader of the Opposition on the merger and its implications. An election is going to be held in this country within three months and one would have the thought that the point of briefing both sides would be because, whoever becomes the Government will be called upon to approve the merger of CIBC and Barclays.

The fact is that workers have suffered extreme reversals in their fortunes on job sites under the present administration. Our platform on Labour relations for the next General Election is being drafted as we speak and I can safely say that should PLP become the Government, we will protect the rights of workers.

Thank you very much.

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