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TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2021
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OBIE FERGUSON
Union chief: ‘Defer’ pay rises for completed industrial deals By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A TOP union leader has suggested that organised labour defer salary and other benefit increases in exchange for employers concluding long-outstanding industrial agreements until the economy revives. Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, told Tribune Business that his “public plea” would show Bahamians that unions were not as greedy and demanding as employers and the government sometimes portrayed them to be. Renewing calls for a proper “partnership” between labour and capital, Mr Ferguson said unions and their members were keenly aware that COVID19 and Hurricane Dorian had brought the Bahamian economy to their knees, with many companies now struggling for survival. But, while not insensitive to the employer’s plight, he argued that “you cannot operate as though we do not exist” in reference to what multiple unions have branded as attempts to unilaterally alter or vary established working practices and industrial agreement terms without prior consultation with the unions. Atlantis has been accused of doing this three times by the hotel union with regard to Christmas bonuses,
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BPL given ‘free hand’ as Shell exclusivity ditched By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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AHAMAS Power & Light (BPL) has ditched Shell North America’s exclusivity and has “a free hand” to negotiate the best electricity prices for New Providence with any supplier that can meet its terms. Desmond Bannister, deputy prime minister, yesterday confirmed to Tribune Business that BPL is free to negotiate with the generation provider of its choice even though it and the government still had “goodwill” towards Shell and want to “give it every opportunity to be the party that lands the agreement”. He declined, though, to state whether there was still a “preferred” bidder or give a timeline for when BPL’s efforts to outsource power generation will conclude. Mr Bannister, who has ministerial responsibility for BPL, would only say that negotiations will finish when the government and stateowned utility have the deal they want. “BPL is still negotiating with Shell, but they also have a free hand to speak to anyone else they wish to,” the deputy prime minister told this newspaper. “They’re still negotiating with Shell. We still have goodwill towards Shell, and would like to give Shell every opportunity to be the party that lands the agreement.” Mr Bannister’s comments back up Tribune Business’ November 20, 2020, revelation that Shell North America’s two-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BPL
• DPM affirms utility can speak to other providers • But still wants Shell to have ‘every chance at deal’ • Talks only finish if terms ‘where BPL wants them’
DESMOND BANNISTER had expired, thus ending the energy giant’s exclusivity on constructing and supplying fuel to New Providence’s proposed new power plant at Clifton Pier. This newspaper reported at the time that the MoU’s end would enable BPL to talk to rival electricity providers in a bid to obtain lower prices and better commercial terms than those offered by Shell North America - something that has now been confirmed by the deputy prime minister. Asked why Shell, BPL and the government had been unable to conclude an agreement, Mr Bannister replied: “I think you know how negotiations work. Parties bring forward their proposals, and you consider them. If those proposals are not where you’d like them to be, then you let them know and they have to determine whether to come back with something that’s better.” The Shell North America deal would have seen the energy giant acquire from BPL some 220 megawatts (MW) of generation assets
that have been built, or are due to shortly be constructed, at Clifton Pier. A liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal was to be located nearby to provide fuel to the plant, which would have sold electricity to BPL via a 20-25-year power purchase agreement (PPA). Several sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, previously told Tribune Business that the government felt Shell was charging BPL too high a price for the energy provided by the new power plant and wanted the rates to be lower. It was also said to believe that the talks with the energy giant were dragging out too long and wanted to explore other options. “The negotiations are going to be complete whenever they are at the level that BPL wants them to be at, and the pricing is at the level BPL wants it to be at,” Mr Bannister replied, when asked about the timeline for completing talks and concerns over Shell’s pricing. “I don’t want to say there’s a
Foreign fisherman bar in legal battle By NEIL HARTNELL and YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporters TOP fisheries wholesalers have teamed with boat owners and foreign workers in a bid to overturn recent legal reforms passed by Parliament that ban the latter from working in the sector,. Paradise Fisheries and Percy Roberts, Geneva Brass Seafood’s principal, are among ten plaintiffs named in a January 8, 2021, summons that urges the Supreme Court to declare the ban contained in the Fisheries Act 2020 and Immigration Act changes as unconstitutional and discriminatory. The wholesalers, who are joined by various fishing boat-owning corporate entities, two Dominican fishermen working legally in this nation and their
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• Wholesalers, boat owners team to fight reforms • Fisheries Act ‘unconstitutional, discriminatory’ • Allege law’s supporters will soon ‘not gloat’ Bahamian wives, are ultimately seeking a “permanent injunction” from the court to prevent the government from implementing the provisions in the new Acts that they deem offensive. The summons, filed by Sears & Company, the law firm of ex-attorney general Alfred Sears, is focused on two parts of the Fisheries Act - sections 31 and 32 - that bar foreign fishermen - even those in The Bahamas legally with work and spousal permits, or permanent residency, from working on Bahamianowned fishing vessels. It argues that these create
“arbitrary and discriminatory treatment” for the two wives, Maria Jackson and Raquel Anthonya Major-Perez, as the reforms deprive them of support by their husbands in violation of numerous parts of the Bahamian constitution. The summons also alleges that the legislative changes have robbed their husbands of their “unrestricted right to work”. The summons, in particular, targets the constitution’s article 26, which prohibits discrimination on race or ethnic grounds. Other articles cited include those related to the individual’s freedom; protection from
inhumane treatment; and protection for the privacy of the home and other property. The legal papers argue that the Fisheries Act and Immigration Act also violate treaties that The Bahamas has signed on to, and result in “arbitrary and unlawful interference with family life” by introducing treatment “inconsistent with principles prevailing in democratic societies”. Other arguments allege that the bar will undermine the operations of the named wholesalers and fishing boat vessels, depriving
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preferred party. BPL has the opportunity to say what it wants, and what our country and people need as rates.” The end to its two-year exclusivity will represent a blow to Shell North America given the time and multimillion dollar investment it will have made to secure its status as preferred bidder, which was awarded in early 2018 when the former BPL Board chaired by Darnell Osborne was in office. The potential deal was muchtouted by the government at the time. Shell, though, has increasingly betrayed its eagerness to seal the deal with BPL in recent months by going public on several occasions. Gerard Van-Ginkel, the multinational energy giant’s project director, told Tribune Business in October 2020 that “a degree of urgency” was required to close the deal for New Providence’s new multi-fuel power plant. The failure to seal the Shell deal during the exclusivity period also further delays BPL’s goal of exiting the power generation business, thereby enabling it to focus solely on customer service and transmission and distribution, given that the new Clifton Pier plant represented the key element in this strategy. And as BPL’s negotiations drag out, it is Bahamian households, businesses and the wider economy that become caught in the
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$3.84 Harbour Island project confronts major opponents By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A HARBOUR Island developer and its opponents confronted each other at a sometimes-tense planning meeting where it was revealed a project contractor was working 70 feet beyond the permitted area. David Hayes, 4M Harbour Island’s senior vice-president, admitted Bahamas Marine Construction had been working outside the area allowed under the approvals received to-date when questioned by rival Harbour Island hotelier, Ben Simmons. Mr Simmons, a member of Br-Island Responsible Development Association (BIRD), the group that has launched two Judicial Review challenges to the permits issued to 4M and its developer, Michael Wiener, had challenged whether the rock revetment being constructed to stabilise the shoreline was shown on environmental and planning documents. Mr Hayes, acknowledging that it was not shown, said: “The original permitted rock revetment area shown earlier on both the consultation and as being constructed was fully permitted. At this point in time we have not yet - and I use the word yet because we feel that it’s an improvement to the shoreline - sought permits to add the add the rock revetment area taking additional shoreline. “Now we all know the contractor working on-site exceeded the limits...” Mr Simmons, though, replied: “That’s news to me”, which brought an icy response from Mr Hayes, who accused him and BIRD of suggesting that Bahamas Marine Construction had mistakenly gone 200 feet - rather than 70 feet - beyond the permitted area.
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