The Bahamas Customs and Immigration Allied Workers Union has signed a new industrial agreement with the Government. The new deal contains new benefits for the 1300 members of the union.
The president of the union, Sloane Smith, called the new agreement marginal but said the union accepted nonetheless. At the signing event he said, “in terms of increases, in the first year we’re looking at at least one increment, plus a normal increment. In the second year they’re offering two increments plus the normal increment and in the third year, one increment plus the normal increment. Additionally, we have a small increase in the uniform allowance. We can say to the hundreds of Customs and Immigration officers who previously were not receiving shift allowance that they will in fact be receiving $250 shift allowance.”
The Minister of State for the Public Service, the Hon. Pia Glover was also on hand at the signing event and spoke to the government’s commitment to harmonious tripartite relations with workers and its efforts to bring unions back to the table since coming to office.
Also at the signing was the country’s Financial Secretary, Simon Wilson who said, “this year we’ve seen extraordinary efforts by Customs and by Immigration in terms of stepping to the plate and driving the revenue performance of this country. In today’s paper we talked about the revenue performance and that is largely attributed to the efforts of the men and women of the Customs Dept. and well as the Immigration Dept.
This agreement which is approximately $8 million in value is one of many agreements the government has executed with various unions around the country.
