The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

NEGOTIATIONS for a new industrial agreement for nurses should be completed soon, Bahamas Nurses Union (BNU) president Muriel Lightbourn said yesterday, while acknowledging nurses' frustration over the delay.

Mrs Lightbourn sought to provide an update on the talks after hearing concerns from nurses about the status of their new industrial agreement, following the successful conclusion of talks between the government and the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT).

“Everytime a union signs an industrial agreement, then the nurses start to get busy busy and ask what's happening to us but there’s alot of things going on," she said, adding that the union has not been resting on its laurels.

She said negotiations for a new five-year industrial agreement began in February after the contracts for both Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) nurses and Department of Health nurses expired late last year.

Mrs Lightbourn described the talks as having gone “smoothly”, but said matters related to a legal dispute had delayed the process.

She said retaining nurses was a key priority in the negotiations after receiving input from various stakeholders, with provisions discussed to address the issue.

“We tried to re-structure the salaries because our aim for the negotiations was to be able to recruit nurses into the profession. We wanted to be able to retain them and we were looking at what would benefit our nurses after they retire.”

Some of the benefits the union is pushing for include new salary scales, increased allowances and improved benefits for nurses relocated to the Family Islands, which can include round trip tickets for return trips home.

The union is also seeking to replace the term “on-call” with an “availability allowance” to better reflect the demands placed on nurses.

“You could be on call for the month, and you could be called out two or three times a night and you still would only get that flat rate,” she added. “And so, we've asked to have that terminology changed to availability allowance, and so that means that when you're called out, overtime should kick in.”

She said the challenge in moving talks forward was the absence of the union’s secretary general, who had initiated a legal dispute against Mrs Lightbourn over concerns about her leadership.

After labour officials requested her involvement in the negotiations, Mrs Lightbourn said she did not push back.

“This is not about me and the secretary general. This is about the nurses,” she added.

However, she added that talks stalled further when government officials requested that the negotiations be put on hold until after the court ruling.

“That was not even valid,” she said. “I don’t see where that should have presented a problem but be it as it may, that’s where we are at.”

She said nurses are fed up and shouldn't be “going through this wrangling” because of internal issues, calling this unfair.

On outstanding mileage and overtime payments, the BNU president said she was informed by the minister that the payments would be made by the end of this month.

She said the minister also promised that other outstanding matters, including confirmation letters and promotions, would be addressed.

“And so, once we meet again in our follow-up meeting, if these things are not done, then we know there's a course of action to take. But I believe that it would only be fair to give them an opportunity to make good on what they said they're going to do, and then if they don't do it, then you know what to do,” she added.