The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Union of Teachers President Belinda Wilson has rejected Labour and National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson’s claim that the Government has resolved the BUT’s Industrial Agreement issues.

Her comments came after Mr Gibson told the press that since entering office in 2012, the government has signed 11 of 12 outstanding industrial agreements. Mr Gibson said on Monday, “the only one outstanding is immigration because they are being unreasonable”.

In a press release yesterday, Ms Wilson countered: “The BUT submitted a draft Collective Bargaining Agreement for 2013- 2016 to the government from May 2013 and to date the union has not received a counter proposal from the government nor has a date been set for negotiations to begin.

“Hence, the remarks made by Minister Shane Gibson in the media that ‘the (Government) has successfully concluded negotiations with a number of unions _ and he listed the BUT as one of those unions – is completely false.”

“The BUT states emphatically that there has not been any negotiations between the BUT and the Government as it relates to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. In fact, the agreement expired on June 30, 2013.”

Mrs Wilson added that her union is still waiting for the Ministry of Education to comply with matters addressed when trade disputes were filed by the union last month.

“Equally as important,” she said, “the BUT and the Ministry of Education has the matter of BUT executives being denied access and denied meetings on school campuses, which is presently before the Supreme Court”.

She urged Mr Gibson to retract his statements because they are not “a fair representation of the facts as it relates to the Bahamas Union of Teachers and all of the outstanding matters which still exists”.