The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

THE government is pressing ahead with its court case against the union representing school administrators and wants the union to pay its legal costs, even though members ended their industrial action after one day, Bahamas Educators Managerial Union president Stephen McPhee said.

Mr McPhee said continuing to pursue the injunction after BEMU members returned to work is an attempt to restrict the union's right to strike. Seeking legal fees from the union goes beyond what was necessary, he said, and as far as he knows is unprecedented.

BEMU took industrial action on September 1 over what Mr McPhee described as years of unresolved matters, including promotions dating back to 2016. Justice Darron Ellis granted the government an interim injunction that day ordering members back to work. The union ended its action after Prime Minister Philip Davis intervened and asked for an opportunity to help resolve its concerns.

Mr McPhee said the union had been confident it would not need to take the legal matter further once members returned. Instead, he said, he was served two days later, and the union must now appear before the Supreme Court to discharge the injunction.

He said Director of Education Dominique McCartney-Russell had filed two affidavits in support of the injunction application. Mr McPhee criticised her involvement, saying she had previously benefited from BEMU's efforts to resolve outstanding promotions. The union is disappointed that she is now part of proceedings challenging its industrial action and seeking legal costs from it, he said.

Mr McPhee also said the union had received indications that the government was trying to identify members who took part in the industrial action, with a view to docking their pay.

"We have a membership, who I can tell you, at this point," Mr McPhee said, "it took a lot to get them to go back to work."

He said the actions of the minister, the director, the permanent secretary and the parliamentary secretary in pursuing the union through the Supreme Court were "not looking good" for relations.

Mr McPhee said the union has made progress since the industrial action. Several promotion matters dating back to 2016 were resolved within days, he said, after Mr Davis and the Ministry of Labour and Public Service intervened.

He thanked the Public Service Commission for its role, but said members are growing uneasy with the pace of progress on the remaining issues.

He accused the Ministry of Education of presenting the resolved promotions publicly as its own achievement, and said some members felt insulted. What is being played out in public is not what is happening, he said, because the ministry makes daily announcements while the union's struggle continues.

Mr McPhee rejected the government's claim that seven schools are without principals. He pointed to the government's own injunction filing, which he said listed 29 schools without any administrator.

"No principal, no vice principal, no senior master mistresses," Mr McPhee said, "and so, the spin doctors will put it how they wish, but our fight is not basically just a fight for us - it's a fight for our system, our profession."

He said the union's push for adequate administrative and teaching staff stems from its belief that every child in The Bahamas is entitled to quality and equitable access to education.

Mr McPhee said the industrial action was legal under the Industrial Relations Act and under International Labour Organisation Convention 87. BEMU is awaiting the court's judgment and will appeal if necessary, he said.