C ALLS ON GOV T TO REGULARISE CONT RACTUAL EMPLOYEES

BY JADE RUSSELL Tribune Staff Reporter Jrussell@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Congress of Trade Unions Bahamas (NCTUB) officials have called on the government to put an end to contractual work of employment, adding workers hired on a contract are being stripped of basic employment benefits.

Sherry Benjamin, vice president of the NCTUB, who also serves as the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union’s (BCPOU) president, spoke to reporters on Friday. She said workers in contractual employment need to be regularised in organisations.

“We don’t know where this creature came from with contractual staff,” Ms Benjamin said. “However, it’s a creature that we’re trying to stamp out because it doesn’t benefit the workers in this country and it doesn’t benefit the employers.”

“What is happening now is you have persons on these long-term contracts and they are not able to go to the bank to just simply borrow money to buy a car or to get a home. There is no future for those persons.”

The vice president noted

man’s leg s nea l SEVERED IN AURA CLUB

a man on the ground with blood all around his ankle area.

“I saw him on the ground once the music stopped because it stopped kind of abruptly because everyone was confused and you kind of look over to the DJ’s wall and he’s on the floor and you see blood on his ankle or his foot is in a weird twisty direction,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous.

“I don’t like blood, so I was gagging and trying to run away but my friends were there, and they were looking at it and we all thought his foot snapped. We didn’t really get close enough to see like his foot was off of his body.”

“And so, they kicked us all out. They told us all to leave and as I was leaving, three police officers were coming inside and from there I got the video and I saw what happened and it was something else. It was wild.”

The woman said nothing was suspicious to suggest that a fight or a shooting occurred.

“That’s the part where we have no idea,” she said, “It looks like he was shot or someone sawed his foot off, but I don’t know anything for a fact and we didn’t hear anything that sounded like a gunshot.”

“It was just strange.” that contract work of employment has become a norm now, stressing the government needs to step in to address this matter.

Atlantis representatives declined to comment.

Police officials also offered no comment up to press time yesterday.

“If you look at the Employment Act, a contract is supposed to be for a specific time period and a specific task. These people are doing work that regular employees do,” she said. “But yet they don’t have the benefits of regular employees.”

Ms Benjamin said these workers urgently should be regularised to receive the benefits of a full-time employee.

Secretary General, Daniel Thompson, said employers often refuse to move workers from a contractual basis to permanence for the company’s advantage. He said once a worker isn’t permanent an employer can pay them less money, not offer pension, along with other benefits.

Additionally, the union has been ongoing with negotiations between the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) for the signing of its first industrial agreement for its faculty members.

“We have been at this negotiation now for 10 months,” he said.

“On Tuesday of this week, we submitted the final draft after the negotiation process, and we are now waiting for BTVI to respond. And once they respond hopefully we can set a date to sign,” Mr Thompson said.

He added: “Though the government, on the one hand, advocates and supports good industrial relations. We find that many of these individual organisations have their own culture, their own mindset, and their own objectives.”

Mr Thompson said that ideally the signing is expected to be done during Labour Week.

The assailant reportedly fled the area in a small Japanese vehicle.

The victim was taken to hospital by a private vehicle, but died later of his injuries.

Meanwhile, police reported that a woman was shot and hospitalised after two other women argued in a bar on Minnie Street shortly after 1am on Friday.

As the argument escalated, one of the women went to her car, a silver coloured Japanese vehicle, and got a firearm, according to preliminary police reports. Shots were then fired at the bar, resulting in a woman employee being shot in both legs although she was not involved in the argument.