Remaining Labour Bills Should Be Shelved

The technical committee of the Coalition of Private Sector Organisations met on Thursday, August 9th and again on Monday, August 13th to review and discuss the three labour bills that government is prepared to go ahead with. These three bills are the Employment Act, the Minimum Wages Act, and the Health and Safety at Work Act. As you may recall, two of the proposed labour bills have been shelved by government, being the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act and the Industrial Court and Trade Disputes Act.

The consensus of the committee is that the three remaining bills should be shelved along with the two bills that are already shelved.

These three bills will bring substantial increases in costs to employers, as well as increases in costs to Bahamian taxpayers to fund the large government bureaucracy that these bills create. An Economic Impact Statement needs to be prepared in order to determine the effect these pieces of legislation will have on the overall economy of The Bahamas. It is felt that the economic impact of these bills will hurt the very people it is aimed at helping. It is more than imprudent to enact legislation of this type without analyzing its socio-economic impact - it is dangerous.

Some of the items that need to be considered as part of the Economic Impact Statement are: i) the inflationary aspects of increases in costs without any increases in productivity; ii) the uncertainty in the Financial Services sector due to the recent regulations that were passed in order to remove the sanctions imposed on The Bahamas by the OECD and FATF; iii) the current global economic downturn and the effects it is having, and will continue to have on The Bahamas; and vi) how these bills will affect The Bahamas competitiveness when the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) takes place in 2005.

The Coalition committee has painstakingly reviewed the June 29th 2001 draft of the Employment Act. Compared to current legislation there are substantial increases in benefits made to employees. Some of the benefits provided to employees in this Act are: a) a reduction in standard hours to 8 hours in any day or forty hours inclusive of meal periods in any week; b) two weeks sick leave per year (based on the definition of "week" as 7 days in the act, this provision may be interpreted as 14 days sick leave per year); c) three weeks pay for vacation each year after 5 years, and four weeks pay for vacation after 10 years; d) twelve weeks maternity leave pay once every three years (offset by National Insurance maternity benefits); e) up to 26 weeks basic pay plus value of benefits in the event of redundancy, (which can be doubled to 52 weeks by the Tribunal); f) up to 26 weeks notice for non supervisory and non managerial staff, and up to 52 weeks notice for supervisory or managerial staff to terminate the contract of employment; g) up to 18 months pay for non supervisory or non managerial staff, and up to 24 months pay for supervisory or managerial staff in the event of the Tribunal finding him or her to have been unfairly dismissed.

There are many provisions of the bill that are objected to by the Coalition committee. Many of the concerns have to do with the drafting of the bill that leaves things unclear, which can lead to filing of trade disputes and law suits in order to allow the Tribunal or the courts to interpret the meaning of the bill. These sections should be remedied prior to the passage of the bill in order to avoid the litigation nightmare that may result. A detailed listing of the provisions of this bill that are objected to by the Coalition committee, as well as the suggested remedies, is being prepared and will be widely distributed to employers upon its completion.

A detailed review is still pending on the remaining two bills, however a cursory look shows the following: No amendments have been made to the Minimum Wage Act. The Health and Safety at Work Act has been expanded to include more sections, however no amendments have been made to the original portions of the bill.

Each employer is urged to obtain a copy of, and peruse the three labour bills in order to determine the impact these bills will have on their individual business if passed in their present form. Being armed with knowledge of the contents of the bills, plus accurate information as to the impact these bills will have on your business will aid tremendously in convincing government leaders to shelve the bills or drastically amend them. Copies of the bills can be obtained from BECon's office.

BECon Working Group Update

The BECon web site is now under construction. By pointing your web browser to http://www.bahamasemployers.org you can access BECon's News Bulletins, the Draft Strategic Plan, plus other information. The web site also provides another avenue of contact through our new email address, becon@bahamasemployers.org.

A member survey has been prepared requesting feedback on the types of services currently being offered by BECon as well as new services that are being considered. Please take the time to complete the survey and fax to BECon's office. A member of the Working Group will provide follow up on the survey by contacting each member over the next few days and weeks. Your input matters to us.

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