Members of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU) at the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (BCB) conducted a demonstration outside of the offices on Friday afternoon.
Union President, Sherry Benjamin informed members of the media of some of the grievances that they are seeking resolution for including back pay and overtime. She said, “you’re waiting in some case four, five, six months you can’t get your benefit from NIB to even be looked at because the Corporation is defaulting, like a lot of businesses, defaulting on NIB contributions.”
BCB Executive Chairman Picewell Forbes responded to Benjamin’s claims saying, “I think the Corporation and its leadership has really bent over backwards to make our staff comfortable. Is everything where we want it to be, no. So I’m saying to staff members, its a free country to demonstrate, to strike but at the end of the day there are also some things that must be borne in mind or taken into consideration. And so I would like to one day see maybe having a conversation with the union’s president, see what those concerns are, we can go over them. The General Manager is out of town, he’s back next week and we can have that discussion. But I feel pretty good as the Executive Chairman here at the Corporation that where we are and the steps that we have taken that we have done pretty well amidst all the challenges that the Corporation faces at this time.”
