Nassau, The Bahamas - The
Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) and the Bahamas Utilities and Allied
Workers Union (BUSAWU
) held a joint press conference on Monday, October
8, at the Corporation’s offices to announce “a significant milestone”
achieved in relation to contracted employees.
The corporation and the union signed an agreement,
to make permanent more than 90 contract employees who have been
employed with the corporation for more than one year. Additionally,
the corporation has secured the union’s agreement that these newly
engaged members of the bargaining unit will not be a part of the existing
defined benefit pension plan which has an unfunded liability of over
$70 million. Instead a contributory pension plan will be established
over the next year and these and other employees in the bargaining unit
after January 1, 2013, will be eligible for this new plan. This plan
will also be ‘portable’ so that participating employees will be
able to ‘take’ their benefits with them if they separate from the
corporation in the future, subject to the conditions of the plan.
WSC chairman Mr. Bradley Roberts said that “in
early March of this year, industrial action ensued at the corporation
as a result of an impasse between management and the BUSAWU regarding
the status of contract employees. Some of these employees had been employed
for up to seven years under consecutive contracts. This failure to reach
an agreement resulted in a court action being filed by the corporation
in order to resolve the matter. However, the government has been able
to reach a resolution to the benefit of all parties and to avoid a protracted
court case and associated costs.”
“The resolution of this matter now means that our
brothers and sisters now have a more stable employment status, complete
with the benefits enjoyed by members of the bargaining unit, who do
the same work that contract employees have been competently carrying
out over the years. The agreement Mr. Roberts said, also ensures that
this situation does not occur in the future by limiting a contract employment
period to one year. If a contract employee’s service is still required
following one year that employee will be made permanent if they are
at the corporation one day beyond the agreed one year period.”
This agreement is in keeping with the government’s
commitment to resolve this matter throughout the Public Service and
to provide meaningful, productive and stable employment for our Bahamian
brothers and sisters. It also begins the government’s action plan
to address the challenge it faces with relative pension liabilities
that not only exist at the corporation but at other government agencies
as well.
