The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Financial Services Union (BFSU) yesterday urged the Government to reduce the cost of doing business in this nation, in a bid to halt the industry’s contraction and outsourcing of jobs to lower-cost Caribbean rivals.

Theresa Mortimer, its president, said in a statement that the union was “taken aback” to learn of potential lay-offs at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), which last week confirmed it was transferring its Bahamas credit card unit to Trinidad & Tobago - a move that threatens up to 50 jobs.

Ms Mortimer said the three Canadian-owned commercial banks have all outsourced or relocated divisions of their business “to the detriment of  Bahamian workers, but no reduction in fees or costs has been passed on to customers”.

    “The Bahamas has long been the ‘jewel’ of the region, bringing in untold millions in revenue to the many banks in the sector,” she added.

“The union has over the last five years expressed its disappointment that many of the employees of the banks, real estate companies, trusts, law firms and insurances companies have not seen the benefit of coming together to negotiate benefits that do not leave them adversely treated.”

    Ms Mortimer said that while no union could stop a company from initiating redundancies or business closures, employees can participate in the way it is handled.

“The current Employment Act does not give what we believe is an adequate payment of redundancy, especially for employees with 10 or more years of service,” she added

“Add to this: Were these employees in RBC given an option of voluntary separation or early retirement. This, too, would allow for some of the younger workers to be redeployed, aligned or given alternate roles so they could continue employment.

“When these workers exit the bank, where do they go? There have been few opportunities in the Bahamas. How do these workers pay their mortgages, loans, feed their families?”

Ms Mortimer said Bahamians must stand together and  not continue to be so passive. “We must defend our right to better ourselves and, by extension, our family and our country,” she added.

“We are seeing a continued shrinkage of the workforce in the finance sector to other territories in the region that long envied the Bahamas. We call on the Government find ways to reduce the cost of doing business and open other avenues to allow Bahamians to truly own their share of the ‘pie’.”

   Hope Strachan, minister of financial services, recently called for “all hands on deck” to prevent further outsourcing of financial services jobs, noting that many factors were driving banks to outsource back office functions and processes to lower-cost jurisdictions elsewhere in the Caribbean.

All three Canadian-owned banks - Scotiabank and CIBC FirstCaribbean, as well as Royal Bank - have sought to cut costs via a combination of branch closures and outsourcing of jobs/back office functions to the likes of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.