The government yesterday signed a $40 million industrial agreement with the Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) that will pave the way for multiple salary increases at various pay scales.
The agreement will result in many public servants receiving four or five incremental payments per year in addition to their usual increments.
Among the increases was a raise for police and defense force officers and prison recruits. Their salaries have gone from $18,000 per year to $20,000 per year.
In addition, disturbance allowance has been increased from $1,200 to $1,500, and transport allowance has risen from $250 per month to $300 per month.
Minister of State for the Public Service Pia Glover-Rolle said the final agreement was the product of a protracted negotiation period in which both the government and union leadership worked for the best outcome.
“We took our time to ensure that public servants at every level would benefit from the salary increases,” Glover-Rolle said.
“We also ensured that essential allowances were increased and those public servants sacrificing by working late shifts are recognized and compensated for their work.”
Glover-Rolle said the BPSU agreement was the latest of 16 industrial agreements the Davis administration negotiated since coming into office.
“We signed a memorandum of understanding with local unions when we were in opposition that we fully intended to honor,” Glover-Rolle declared.
“From day one, we have committed to improved relationships with local unions, working hand in hand with union leaders to negotiate the best compensation and benefits packages possible for our valued public servants.
“The 16 industrial agreements we have signed since September 2021 are a testament to our dedication to improved labor relations.”
While he expressed gratitude for the agreement, BPSU President Kimsley Ferguson said there are still outstanding issues.
“There were some issues and concerns that we did have where we indicated that there were persons who qualified for hazard allowance based on our standards – security officers as well as persons at the meteorological office. Again, we are still awaiting a response in that regard.
“We know that we … conveyed that to the negotiations team. But at this point, we weren’t able to get a response on that particular issue.
“We were seeking either to get some insurance coverage or the hazard allowance for those individuals, particularly those security officers in the schools who are confronted with some degree of challenges when it comes to ensuring that the nation’s youth are able to get a proper education in a safe and healthy environment.”
Ferguson also advocated for an improved uniform allowance for law enforcement.
“While there was an increase in the uniform allowance, we specifically pointed out to the negotiation team the challenges [faced by] persons like police officers and defense force officers and prison officers, whose uniforms are extremely unique and requires consistent cleaning,” Ferguson said.
“Based on the increase in the cost of living, we find that the increase could have been looked at for those individuals in a special way, and so that item was forwarded to the negotiations team. I’m advised that consideration may be given to it.”
Ferguson said despite the areas of the agreement that could be improved on, he is satisfied with the deal.
“The initial concern was that we were agitating for persons at the lower end of the scales,” he said.
“Based on the values of increments, some persons received four increments, some received five.
“We were agitating for six for those persons at the lower end. We are happy that we are able to achieve those five, and as the minister so indicated, this is not the end of it all, and so we get an opportunity to go back to the table come 2025/2026 and we seek to improve on what was given.
“We are hopeful that persons would use their funding wisely, so that they are able to combat the rising cost of living.”