The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

BERNARD Evans has resigned as president of the National Congress of Trade Unions of The Bahamas and will become the chief labour consultant/negotiator for the government.

His resignation was confirmed in a letter dated January 23 sent to Dwayne Woods, the second vice-president of the organisation.

Mr Evans insisted yesterday that  he is not abandoning the labour movement and said he believes he can help from within the government.

His letter said: “Please advance to the Central Council of the NCTUB the tendering of my resignation as president of the National Congress of Trade Unions of The Bahamas effective immediately.”

“As you are aware, the sitting executive body by order of the court has remained in place beyond the normal triennial governance. For the sake of transparency, I advised our legal counsel that I have been appointed by the government of The Bahamas as a chief labour consultant/negotiator. As such, I sought the permission of the courts to be released from my obligations as president.

“Noteworthy that while the NCTUB’s constitution is silent on who the employer/job status of an elected officer should be, it is always my intention that the governance of the Congress remains unfettered by any unnecessary distractions. Therefore, my resignation is predicated on that premise. Please note that my role as a workers’ representative does not cease upon this resignation; rather it is now redirected to another peak national level. I am grateful for the support of those persons who recognised the work of the Congress in the transformation of the landscape of labour in our country. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.”

 When contacted, Mr Evans said yesterday he will agitate for a liveable wage from within the government, among other things.

 “I don’t want it to come off like I abandoned labour because I did not,” he said. “As a matter of fact I feel it’s an opportunity for labour to further advance because I’m all about deepening democracy and the only way you can do that is to have more participatory mechanisms put in place. I’m a strong, strong believer in (the idea) that if you have more persons involved in the discussion then the things that matter in this country to advance the country can be won. No one person has a monopoly on good ideas.

 “As a labour person, I often found it very difficult that decisions made around the table, that labour representation was always missing and so I see this as an opportunity to advance labour’s agenda.”

 Mr Evans said a liveable wage cannot be a fixed thing but should change as inflation shifts.

 He said: “Let’s lean on what the highest learning institution in the country, University of The Bahamas, has said. They came up with around $600 a week as a liveable wage in Nassau and about $670 on Freeport, I believe. That is what they considered the liveable wage is in this country based on the inflation rate, based on what is required to pay for housing, utilities, food, clothing and all that stuff. That’s not my number, that’s something done by University of The Bahamas in conjunction with the NGOs. My number would be that and I would go on that but I also know that we can’t get to that just at a snap of the finger, it has to be incremental. The minimum wage should be replaced by a liveable wage and that’s my agitation.”