Striking BTC workers are hit with pay cuts
By STEPHEN GAY, Guardian Staff Reporter
Executives of the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) have taken promised disciplinary action against unionized workers who took part in industrial action on New Providence and Grand Bahama during August.
BTC's Acting President and CEO Kirk Griffin said in a statement yesterday that senior management at BTC took disciplinary action against 514 members of staff, who left their posts without permission during "the recent unauthorized work stoppages."
"The staff members received pay cuts for any unauthorized time off from work," the statement said. "Consistent with the industrial agreement, due process is ongoing on the matter of staff members who may have used the company's vehicles for unauthorized purposes."
In August, scores of BTC workers using company vehicles took to the streets of the capital and Grand Bahama blocking major road ways. The workers were protesting the government's decision not to allow union representation on the committee that is negotiating the company's privatization.
The action brought services at the company to a virtual standstill.
Not long after, BTC Chairman Julian Francis confirmed that pay cuts and suspensions would follow for workers who participated in what company officials had termed an illegal strike.
The Nassau Guardian has learnt that both line staff and managers were affected by the pay cuts. While there was no official figure released in relation to what the pay cuts amounted to, some of the workers impacted claimed employees were cut several hours' pay.
There were no reports of suspensions.
When contacted for comment on the matter, president of the Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union Claude Hanna declined to comment. Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union president, Robert Farquharson, said he was in meetings and promised to comment on the matter at another time.
A BCPOU official told The Guardian not long after the demonstration that further action would be taken should BTC follow through with any disciplinary measures. After the protests, Senior Supreme Court Justice John Lyons issued an injunction restraining the unions from taking any further action. The injunction was lifted but the judge warned that he would re-institute the injunction should the unions call any unlawful work stoppages in the future.