The Tribune

By ​​LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER several months of negotiations, Nassau Flight Services and the Airport Airline and Allied Workers Union (AAAWU) signed a five-year industrial agreement at the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday.

Some of the features of the new industrial agreement include lump sum payments, increments over a three-year period and increases in workers’ meals and travel allowances, among other things.

AAAWU’s general secretary, Susan Palmer admitted that negotiations began on a “contentious” note, but ended harmoniously.

Obie Roberts, chairman of NFS, agreed, saying after several months of negotiations, he was happy that both parties were able to come to an amicable agreement and move forward.

“It has been several months in which we had negotiations,” he added, “and we have finally come to a conclusion in which we can move on together harmoniously as employee and employer to run the successful ground handling company that Nassau flight services is aiming to be as we go forward, and it is a great day right now as we move forward in harmony.”

Ms Palmer also said while the union was not able to get everything it wanted, it was still satisfied with the overall benefits highlighted in the agreement, especially the new added feature of having “emergency days.”

She noted that this particular benefit was the first of its kind for its 100 plus workers and also gave insight into some of the other features offered in the contract.

“We can say that we got increases in our meal allowance. We got a duty travel allowance increase. We got a long term disability increase. Transportation allowance was increased. Uniform, we got some movement in that area,” she said.

“(For) compassionate leave, they were very compassionate. We also got something that we have never had in the contract, which is emergency days.

“They worked with us with that and we got an increase in our vacation days. The contract is a five-year contract, and we can truly say that they have been generous in what they gave. We never get like you say all that we want, but we, the executive and members are satisfied with what we have gotten in this contract.”

Lester Turnquest, a senior negotiator for the government who was also present at yesterday’s signing, hailed it as another demonstration of the Davis administration’s commitment of creating harmony in the workplace.

“The government made a determination that it wanted industrial harmony and so it organised a unit, a diverse unit with persons of varying skills and persons with union expertise...and so the objective is, to the extent that that is fiscally possible, to spread the resources of the country among those persons that need it the most,” he said.

“No one gets everything that they want but you try to meet them in the middle, taking into consideration the needs of the union members and the limitations of the financier which are in large measure in a number of cases is the public purse.”

The agreement covers from 2020 until 2025 and has a total dollar value of over $500,000.