Managing director Paul Major said the sickout was likely to continue today and in any case, the fallout from the Sunday sickout would certainly affect today’s operations. He was hopeful, however, that a meeting with board mmembers and Bradley Roberts, minister responsible for the airline, would restore harmony in the airline’s workplace.
The Sunday ordeal began when a couple of employees called in sick in the morning. Other employees followed suit and by Sunday afternoon none of the ground staff had showed up for work, according to Mr. Major.
In an interview with The Guardian last night, he said all of the national flag carrier’s aircraft were on the ground at Nassau International Airport by afternoon and that both international and domestic passengers were transported to their destinations via other airlines.
“Yes, a couple of dispatchers called in sick, then a couple of flight attendants called in sick… and then by the afternoon, the whole shift of ground staff had called in sick and more flight attendants,” he said.
With the sick calls increasing each hour, Mr. Major said it was impossible to continue flying the aircraft, because flight attendants are required to be on every aircraft. He said once the morning flight crew members exceeded their allotted flight time, the only choice was to ground the fleet. Backup staff, he said, were in place behind the counter to check in customers.
Some weren’t happy. One lady said she was supposed to be at a funeral in Freeport Sunday and Bahamasair “stupidness” ruined her whole day.
When asked whether he knew what led to the mass sickout Mr. Major said he was not entirely sure.
“I don’t want to speculate on that οΎ– I would only say that I had a meeting with the union executive along with the human resources director as well as our industrial consultant as recently as Friday, at which time they enumerated four things that they had a problem with, two of these had to do with their salary increases, which haven’t been paid,” he said.
“But I told them that that was under active review by the minister and the board. And one of the two matters to do with staff actions was resolved right there. The other one, I said would have to be reviewed further,” he said.
Mr. Major said he called one of the representatives who attended the meeting on Saturday to say that the company was looking favourably at arriving an agreement on the second proposal and that he was surprised at the mass sickout.
“I don’t know what this industrial matter is all about. Because the money part of it, you know, everybody knows the economic situation in the country,” he said.
He indicated that the sickout would prove to be extremely expensive as thousands of dollars would have to be paid to the airlines operating in Bahamasair’s place.
“Because the company has to pay for every flight that it’s using to operate the routes. Falcon Air was operating all afternoon and all night… and then we’ve got Southern Air, Western Air and Caribbean Air operating international routes for us and we’ve got to pay them. So it is revenue, which is going out of the country, never to be recovered, while we continue to pay staff and pay for our equipment.
Last night, the president of the Airport Airline and Allied Workers Union, Nelerene Harding, told The Guardian she will be meeting with some employees at the labour board today at 11 a.m. to discuss their concerns, which in part, have to do with the salary increases promised in July.
The airline, with 600-plus employees, places a significant economic burden on the Bahamian taxpayer. Its board estimates it loses approximately $125,000 a day.
The airline celebrated its 30th anniversary in June, when Mr. Roberts praised management and staff. He told them that after many false starts and bumps in the road along the way, “Bahamasair is now poised to take off in a direction that would truly bring pride to the staff of the national flag carrier and to all Bahamians alike.”
By Mindell Small, The Nassau Guardian
