The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

SOME civil servants remain reluctant to embrace the Government’s new Oracle payroll and human resources management system, it was argued yesterday, with trade unions raising concerns about whether they have enough training and reliable Internet access to use it.

Deron Brooks, the Bahamas Customs, Immigration and Allied Workers Union (BCIAWU) president, said the Immigration Department is still transitioning to the system, with some employees yet to be trained and departments still working towards becoming sufficiently familiar with the platform before its full implementation.

“We’re still in the transition phase,” Mr Brooks said. “A lot of persons still haven’t been trained to use it as yet. But going to a training session and utilising the system are two different things. You have to utilise something very often to become familiar with it.”

His concerns centre on whether employees and the departments responsible for resolving payroll, accounting and human resources issues will be sufficiently familiar with Oracle when workers begin relying on it for routine employment matters - a transition that is expected to occur on November 1, 2026.

Mr Brooks said employees could encounter difficulties if human resources and accounting personnel are not adequately trained to address issues involving salaries or other employment matters through the new system.

“So we’re not opposed to it, but I’m not certain that the Immigration Department is totally ready to use it as yet,” he said, adding that implementation is taking place in stages.

Mr Brooks said he has not been given a firm date for the full roll-out, but said employees have generally been receptive to the system and he has not heard of major complaints.

He said the transition to new technology will naturally create concerns among workers who are accustomed to traditional processes, but argued that the primary challenge is ensuring government workers across The Bahamas are properly acquainted with the system.

Muriel Lightbourn, president of the Bahamas Nurses Union (BNU), similarly said some older civil servants have been reluctant to use the technology - not necessarily because they lack the ability to operate it, but because they are uncomfortable with computers.

“That was one of the concerns,” she said. “Not so much that they may not be competent in it. A lot of people don’t like the computers so much.”  Mrs Lightbourn said this had contributed to some public officials failing to log into or regularly use Oracle, prompting the union to encourage members to access the platform and ensure their accounts were active.

Her comments come as the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) prepares to introduce Oracle-related payroll changes this month, with employees expected to receive salaries on October 16 and 30 under a twice-monthly payment arrangement.

Mrs Lightbourn said the PHA met with union leaders to explain the roll-out, but she subsequently requested meetings with members so employees could be directly informed about what they needed to do and have their concerns addressed. She said similar discussions with Department of Public Health employees are still pending.

Access to the system could present another challenge, particularly given The Bahamas’ persistent electricity and connectivity problems.

Mrs Lightbourn said employees are able to access Oracle through their personal devices in addition to kiosks located at certain institutions, which she described as a positive development given the number of workers who could otherwise have to share limited equipment. However, she acknowledged that electricity outages remain a concern.

“I know the electricity is always off,” Mrs Lightbourn said. “The only thing we can hope is that it won’t be off so long that persons will be able to access their Oracle to log in.”

She said employees with charged mobile phones and mobile data could have an alternative means of accessing the platform during outages, but added that electricity reliability and other logistical issues must be considered as the system becomes more widely used.

Mr Brooks also raised questions about the practical arrangements for employees who will have to log into the system, including whether sufficient terminals will be available. “The signing in issue of it, the signing in part of it,” he said, identifying access as one of the key logistical concerns.

Mr Brooks said the Government will also need to ensure supervisors and managers are properly trained because they will have responsibilities within the system that ordinary employees may not have.

“The logistical part of it, I still don’t have all the answers,” he said. “I know that the Government is moving towards this system, and they know that they have to train human resources and the finance section first, and then do everything else in stages.”

The concerns come as the Government continues its broader public-service modernisation programme, with Oracle-based Cloud Bahamas intended to replace a number of traditional paper-based processes and allow public servants to access services including pay slips, leave applications, employment letters and personal information online.

The digital transition has also been tied to the Government’s payroll reform plans. In 2025, Pia Glover-Rolle, minister of labour, said public servants would ultimately have the choice of receiving salaries monthly or bi-monthly, following consultations with stakeholders and a Ministry of Finance survey that found majority support for two monthly payments among respondents at that stage.

The payroll reform had already faced resistance from some unions. Belinda Wilson, the Bahamas Union of Teachers president, previously raised concerns about data security and access to employees’ personal information on Oracle, and warned public servants against registering until those concerns were addressed.

The current union concerns, however, centre more heavily on implementation and ensuring employees can actually use the system once they are required to depend on it. For Mr Brooks, training cannot end with simply introducing employees to the platform.

“You have to utilise something very often to become familiar with it,” he said. “I think the challenge is going to be familiarising the staff with it, and then rolling it out.”