The Tribune

By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A top government labour negotiator yesterday revealed he plans to submit a report asserting that the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) is “in total violation” of both its industrial agreements over the recent controversial terminations of five employees.

Bernard Evans, himself a former president of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU), which represents BTC line staff, told Tribune Business it was “totally disrespectful and disheartening” that the communications provider seemingly ignored disciplinary procedures that have been “in place for over 35 years”.

He explained that, based on the outcome of a meeting involving himself and Howard Thompson, the Government’s director of labour, it appeared that BTC “didn’t go through the grievance process” set out in both the BCPOU and Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union’s (BCPMU) respective industrial agreements when they fired the five staff - three of whom were terminated over alleged credit card fraud involving mobile phone purchases.

Mr Evans, and both the unions, said that under the agreements BTC must first formally lodge and initiate a “grievance” against the employee(s) who allegedly committed an offence, and then supply the relevant union(s) - as their representative - with the evidence that justifies any disciplinary action taken. This, they allege, was not done prior to terminating the five employees concerned.

BTC declined to comment on the situation when approached by Tribune Business earlier this week, but it previously asserted that the firings were justified and those involved terminated “for cause”, while its actions fully complied with the provisions of both unions’ industrial agreements.

Meanwhile, both union presidents told Tribune Business to “stay tuned” on their possible next steps and asserted that “they have tried all the diplomatic steps” to get the matter resolved. They are, though, seeking another meeting and discussions with Prime Minister Philip Davis KC, who they said is supposed to receive Mr Evans’ report.

Kenny Knowles, the BCPMU president, confirming the union has filed a trade dispute with the Department of Labour over the terminations of his two members, told Tribune Business that a conciliation meeting involving all parties a week ago Monday failed to break the deadlock with BTC “maintaining its position”.

That meeting occurred after a previous sit-down between all sides some two-and-a-half to three weeks ago. Both Mr Thompson and Mr Evans were present after BTC requested the Department of Labour’s mediation “intervention” in a bid to ease industrial tensions and resolve the dispute.

Mr Thompson was said to be out of office yesterday and unavailable for comment, but Mr Evans confirmed their presence at the “mediation meeting” - which took place outside the legal confines of the trade dispute process - and that “nothing came out of that”. The latter, though, said both he and Mr Thompson concluded that - based on what was presented - the unions’ complaints and concerns have some justification.

“The unions’ bone of contention is the termination of those five persons didn’t go through the grievance process at all,” Mr Evans explained to this newspaper. “No formal grievance was ever lodged so that the unions could prepare, discuss and look at the evidence presented by the company and see if it could withstand their scrutiny.”

Mr Evans added that, if BTC fails to provide the relevant evidence and documents, “no grievance process can take place” and there is a specified time in which this has to be released. He backed union claims that the carrier failed to initiate “grievance” proceedings against the five, and release the necessary evidence, thus breaching both industrial agreements.

While acknowledging that BTC had met with both unions over the terminations, Mr Evans described this as “exploratory” and not a formal start of grievance procedures as the discussions revolved around the protocols for purchasing cell phones via credit cards, and whether there is a consistent policy governing this across all stores and managers.

Mr Evans, explaining that he and Mr Thompson never got into whether the five terminated employees are “guilty or not”, said the unions’ concerns are “absolutely correct” and “my position as well”. He added: “I know for a fact the consensus was from our side that they did not adhere to the industrial agreement in the manner in which they lodged the initial grievance.

“You’re supposed to provide all the evidence and set up a date for a hearing. They never did that. They terminated persons without that process.” Mr Evans said BTC also appeared not to have provided the two unions with its disciplinary policies and procedures, and any updates to them, despite this also being a requirement of the industrial agreements.

Affirming that last week’s subsequent “conciliation” meeting at the Department of Labour, which he did not attend, had made no progress with BTC not supplying “any additional information to justify its position”, Mr Evans said the way has been cleared for him to submit his report on the situation by Friday.

He disclosed that it will find BTC is “into total violation of those [industrial] agreements”, adding that these state that, if no formal grievance is lodged and no documents/evidence provided to justify the actions taken, then no action can be taken against the employees allegedly involved.

“That’s my mindset, and that will be in my report,” Mr Evans told Tribune Business. “For me, it’s totally disrespectful and disheartening that this entity is allowed to violate industrial agreements, and these procedures have been in place for over 35 year. It has not changed; the process that could result in discipline and termination.”

Mr Knowles, the BCPMU middle management union president, said the “mediation” meeting attended by Mr Thompson and Mr Evans also discussed “health and safety matters” although he did not provide any details.

As to the outcome of that meeting, he added: “The Department of Labour told BTC they were not in compliance with the industrial agreement. We were hoping that would have helped the conciliation meeting to be more resolved, and that they would have come to the conciliation with more understanding. But they [BTC] maintained their position.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that they want to push this issue and extend it to the Industrial Tribunal, which does not have any teeth. We’re prepared to go as far as the Supreme Court depending on what the Prime Minister’s response to this is going to be. We’re waiting for his intervention. Hopefully there will be a resolution coming out of that. If not, we’ll go to the Supreme Court and BTC can be expected to be tested.

“It’s very clear in the articles of the industrial agreement that they violated the provisions. We wait and see… We’ll take the necessary action to bring attention to it. We are not standing by. We are asking members to stand their ground. We will not sit idly by.”

Sherry Benjamin, the BCPOU president, yesterday told Tribune Business “this is going to be an interesting week” although no action has yet been planned by the union over the dispute. “We have not, as a union, finalised anything yet but we have some stuff that we intend to do and are doing,” she added. “Stay tuned.

The union chief echoed Mr Knowles in confirming that the BCPOU, too, is seeking another meeting with the Prime Minister with BTC showing no sign of changing its stance. “Our industrial agreement is quite clear,” Ms Benjamin said. “When it comes to the grievance process, we told the company, the Prime Minister and Department of Labour that the human resources department did not follow the grievance process in the industrial agreement.

“If there’s evidence, they’re supposed to provide it at the beginning of the grievance process and, if they don’t provide it at the beginning, they can’t do anything to the staff. They started an investigation; they didn’t start the grievance process against the staff. They did an investigation and terminated persons based on something that was poorly done.

“The director of labour and chief labour consultant, Mr Evans, both told BTC representatives that based on what was in front of them at the time, and in the absence of any evidence, they did not follow the process in the industrial agreements.”

Ms Benjamin said she and Mr Knowles have “yet” to be provided with the relevant evidence by BTC, and added that no information was provided by the carrier at the subsequent Department of Labour conciliation meeting where Mr Thompson was present.

“These [five] persons livelihoods have been affected, while the persons involved have been allowed to walk away scot free and leave the company,” Ms Benjamin added of the alleged fraud. “We did all the diplomacy, tried all the diplomacy, went through all the channels to get this resolved. Did they do anything? Nothing. Everybody’s talk, talk.

“We don’t understand what the hold up is. We have to protect our members. This is not going to go like that. I’m prepared to file a case in the Supreme Court. I don’t understand why they have terminated people who have nothing to do with this case. We are putting people on the unemployment line for something someone else did, and nobody is being held accountable. We’re going to do what we have to do to bring some resolve to this matter.”

Stephen Coakley-Wells, BTC’s director of legal and government affairs, in a previous statement, said of the terminations: “BTC wishes to emphasise that this decision was made in accordance with our established policies, the terms of our industrial agreements and in alignment with our commitment to fairness and compliance with the labour laws of The Bahamas. Due to privacy considerations and respect for all parties involved, BTC is limited in what it can share regarding the specifics of personnel matters.

“BTC values its positive and collaborative relationship with its union partners, and remains open to communication with the unions on this and any other issue affecting union members. BTC understands that situations like this can be challenging and is confident in the integrity of the process followed.”