Treasury staff to consider strike

STAFF at the Treasury Department are meeting today to decide whether or not they will take industrial action this week, The Tribune has learned.

According to a source, the employees will meet at 12pm to sign a petition and discuss their options.

The workers will reportedly decide whether to abandon or move ahead with their plan to stage a 'sick out' on Tuesday and Wednesday, now that union officials have advised them to stand down for the time being.

Last Friday, the employees walked off the job, protesting against "unfair" treatment.

Speaking on behalf of the workers, Euthalee Woodside said they are "tired and fed up" with being ignored by management.

"We have some concerns that we want management to address.

"One of our concerns is the long outstanding promotions that we have been waiting on.

"Some persons have been in their posts up to 14 years and we want them to answer us as to say what is happening and why it taking so long for persons to receive their promotions.

"We have other issues but management is aware of the outstanding promotions. Right now we won't go into our other concerns. Right now we want to deal with what is most pressing and that is the promotions.

"We were told that they were working on it but that is not good enough. Its been a very long time. We just want to let management know that we are serious about our promotions, we want our concerns to be addressed."

Ms Woodside said this is not a union-led stand, as some of the employees are members of the Bahamas Public Service Union (BPSU) and some are not.

However, she said they will get the union involved if need be.

BPSU president John Pinder said the union supports the workers 100 per cent and will stand by whatever decision they make.

"There is a concern for the employees about outstanding promotions and short staff. However, I spoke with the chairman of the Public Service Commission and he said they are working on the promotions this week. I have advised the workers not to take any industrial action until they process that information.

"What upset the workers is they were given the wrong information," he said.

"They were advised by someone in the public service that the records had been forwarded to the Public Service Commission but this was not the case.

"When I spoke to the chairman, he advised me that the records just got to his office and he would have his group look at them immediately.

From the union perspective, I asked them to stand down but bear in mind they have the right to withdraw their labour if they see fit. If they want to keep the heat on them, we will support hem 100 per cent."

Management at the Public Treasury could not be reached for comment.