The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Web shop operators yesterday slammed assertions by the government’s top labour official that they are the source of many worker disputes as “wholly inaccurate, unsupported and inappropriate”.

The Bahamas Gaming Operators Association (BGOA), in a statement to the media, hit out at John Pinder’s statement to The Tribune that “quite a number of trade disputes” dealt with by the Department of Labour originate in the domestic gaming sector.

Arguing that the director of labour provided no evidence to support this assertion, the Association said: “The Bahamas Gaming Operators Association (BGOA), wishes to unequivocally refute those statements, as wholly inaccurate, unsupported and inappropriate, particularly the clear singling out of the domestic gaming industry.

“It is regrettable to have read the comments attributed to the director of labour, who in his capacity has the powers under the Employment Act to deal with any employer who may be contravening the law.

“The BGOA has enjoyed a very good and cordial relationship with the Ministry of Labour and its minister. We would invite the director to dialogue with us and share his or his department’s concerns, so that we may address and redress any supported and/or substantiated deficiencies.”

With some 1,027 labour or trade disputes filed with the Department of Labour in 2018, Mr Pinder told The Tribune that the gaming industry was one of the problem areas from which a number of cases emerge.

He said: “Quite a number of the disputes come from number houses. I’m often baffled at the fact that these web shop owners are throwing millions of dollars on a party through the Christmas and hate to pay their staff a decent salary and treat them fairly. That does hurt my heart.”

The association, though, argued that the web shop industry employs almost 3,000 Bahamian staff, and indirectly supports another 1,000 workers. It added: “The industry employs more Bahamians across the islands of The Bahamas than any of our counterparts in the retail sector, and our employees enjoy higher wages and benefits for similar skill-sets.”

It, though, provided no evidence to back its own assertion that web shop staff enjoy “higher salaries and benefits” than Bahamians with similar skill-sets in other industries, instead touting the diversity of jobs which it said range from financial controllers and compliance officers to computer programmers, software developers and graphic artists.

Pointing out that the web shops have collectively contributed more than $30m to social and charitable causes since the industry was legalised in 2014, the Association added: “We believe that more industries should follow the lead of the domestic gaming industry’s charitable, social and community efforts.

“The Bahamas Gaming Operators Association’s (BGOA) members take tremendous pride in ensuring our industry continues to innovate to attract the best and the brightest, and it is incredibly proud of the nearly 3,000 Bahamian professionals directly employed by it.”