The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Public Services Union President John Pinder said yesterday that he called off plans to have employees at the Lynden Pindling International Airport “walkout” amid what he described as stressful working conditions that have persisted over the past four years.

Mr Pinder, insisting that he was not a proponent of unwarranted industrial action, said the move to delay industrial action on Wednesday came as a result of a last minute call from Chairman of the Airport Authority Milo Butler Jr who invited him to a meeting in hopes of resolving several of the issues at the facility.

Despite the invite, however, Mr Pinder said he thought it necessary to warn both the Airport Authority and the government through the press that if acceptable resolutions were not realised, he would again move to carry out industrial action.

“Today the Fire and Rescue workers and the security staff would have met me here for us to do this press conference,” stated Mr Pinder as he stood just outside of LPIA’s domestic terminal.

Mr Pinder said employees at the facility were in some cases being entrapped by management to “cut them just to get monies”.

The union leader insinuated that the limited financial resources of the Airport Authority has led the entity to clamp down on employees on several fronts unnecessarily.

He said the roughly 350 workers have been patient with both the government and management of the Airport Authority to date on the issues.

“Keeping with good industrial relationships, we thought it necessary to accommodate the chairman to try to get these matters resolved,” Mr Pinder said.

“We have decided today that we will do this press conference to sensitise the government and the general public in the event that industrial actions come against them, they cannot say that we are being unfair (or that) we didn’t follow the process.

“We have warned the Airport Authority over the last two years that they are practising some things that are in violation of our industrial agreement.”

According to Mr Pinder, staff at LPIA are now being penalised through pay cuts for tardiness, sometimes for as little as three minutes.

Mr Pinder said the industrial agreement between the union and the entity stipulates that if an employee is late on more than three occasions, he or she should receive two verbal warnings followed by a written warning on the third offence.

Mr Pinder said based on the industrial agreement, the infraction should be viewed as an impediment to a promotion and not a reduction in wages.

“So it cannot be double jeopardy. You cannot be withholding promotions from the staff because of tardiness and simultaneously cutting them,” he stated.

“We have spoken to them about it, told them that they are in violation of the industrial agreement, please not to continue in that kind of action.”

Further to that, Mr Pinder criticised the Airport Authority’s human resource department, claiming that the unit has opted to work in favour of the authority’s management team, instead of a “mediator between the subordinate staff and management.”

“We have been asking them to please find a suitable person to manage the human resources department, somebody that we think has a little more compassion and will follow the industrial agreement and show a bit of humaneness,” stated Mr Pinder.

“Persons are being denied promotions. Persons are being put in positions where it is very difficult for them to perform.”

In regards to the LPIA Fire and Rescue workers, Mr Pinder said promises to repair their facility after the passage of Hurricane Matthew have remained unfulfilled.

Mr Pinder added: “What we really believe though is that the Airport Authority is struggling financially, so we want to ask the government to please assist them as best they can to subsidise them.

“We believe that this is the reason they find these little small excuses to try to cut the staff, and try to suspend them without pay just so they can meet their budget for that particular month or period. We honestly believe that.”

He added: “To try to set up your colleagues, to set up your employees in such a way that when they are late, sometimes persons have to attend briefings and they are 10 to 15 minutes late getting to their stations, they want to call them late and penalise them for that.”

“We have staffers being terminated just for being in the company of persons who may have been charged before the court or accused of any illegal activity.

“And (management) is now trying to use that against the staff to now say they are in some violation and there is no way for you not to associate with a family member because they may have been involved in some illegal activity.

“I believe they are being set up, to the point I believe that they are even being followed to see if you will go to a certain family member’s house or have a drink with a friend; just so they can find an excuse to terminate these persons or suspend them without pay.

“We want the government to step in and speak to the Airport Authority to amend their ways in relation to how they handle the staffers.”

He also said the Airport Authority employees also have issues with lack of equipment and a lack of uniform for months.

Mr Pinder is the interim deputy leader of the United Peoples Movement - the country’s newest political organisation. He has announced plans to contest the Fox Hill constituency in the next general election.