The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama’s Chamber of Commerce president yesterday said it feels like the island constantly takes “one step forward, two steps back” prior to Freeport Container Port reversing the termination of 20 workers.

James Carey, speaking before the reversal was announced, said any job losses would further reduce spending in an already-depressed economy besides impacting the families of those involved. “That is a concern, and I sincerely wish this was not the case and that there was another way of getting around it and whatever has caused this. It’s like one step forward, two steps back,” he added.

“I saw an interview with Robert Farquharson (director of labour) yesterday where he said the Government was aware, and as long as the people were paid properly in accordance with the law it is what it is.

“I don’t know if there have been technological changes or they lost business. It’s just hard to say. There have been supply chain issues in the past you know. Coming out of COVID a lot of places around the world are complaining about supply chain issues and therefore diminished work.”

The Ministry of Grand Bahama, in a statement issued yesterday, said the 20 terminated workers had abruptly been rehired following a “swift” intervention by Prime Minister Philip Davis KC and his office. The nature of that intervention was not revealed, but Freeport Container Port periodically lays off-staff in accordance with the ebbs and flows of shipping commerce. In 2016, it laid off 20 employees, and in 2020 another 37 were dismissed due to COVID-19 related challenges.

Mr Farquharson had suggested that the latest terminations were in response to a 37 percent decline in business volumes at Freeport Container Port. The move, though, was met with immediate push back from Fred Mitchell who, stating that he was speaking in his capacity as Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) chairman, queried if the company - majority-owned by Hutchison Port Holdings - had complied with the Employment Act’s requirements over the terminations.

Changes to the Act, passed just prior to the last Christie administration being voted out of office, require employers to provide the minister of labour with written notice of any planned staff redundancies some 14 days before they take effect. Details, such as the reasons for the terminations, have to be submitted. And, if 20 or more workers are to be fired, an extra 30 days’ pay must be given to affected employees.

“It appears to me there are some gaps which they have not followed,” Mr Mitchell asserted in relation to the Employment Act requirements. Freeport Container Port submitted the termination notice to the minister of labour on December 28, 2022, with the redundancies set to take effect from New Year’s Eve.

Mr Mitchell suggested that the Government had been blindsided by Freeport Container Port’s actions, describing the move as “simply shocking on the face of it”. He also argued that the company “should not be making these moves” due to the profits he said it generates, adding: “Every time there is investment – investment is good – people make generous profits in this country, but they seem to dislike Bahamians. You cannot figure out why that is.”

This is not the first time that Mr Davis has intervened with Freeport Container Port. Last June, he said the Government’s drive for “economic dignity” had resulted in Freeport Container Port reducing the number of “casual” employees in its workforce to 24 percent from 43 percent as a result of his meetings with management.

Philip Davis QC, leading the 2022-2023 Budget debate in the House of Assembly, said the Grand Bahama-based industrial operator had reduced this proportion from the 43 percent threshold that existed when the Government met with it in January 2022.

He added: “At the end of January I had a meeting with the management of the Freeport Container Port. During the meeting, I shared with them that the practice of hiring Bahamians as casual workers rather than employing them as permanent staff was having a large, and negative, impact for those workers.

“The casual workers had no security, no benefits, no leave, no ability to enter into credit arrangements. I want to thank Freeport Container Port, and hold them up as a model for others in Grand Bahama and others in the private sector across our country, because they came back to see me this week to say that as a result of my advocacy and our dialogue, they have made substantial progress in converting a number of casual workers to permanent workers.”