About 30 airport security personnel are without jobs after leaving their posts unmanned as part of industrial action last week in a move that left airport officials scrambling to find replacements.
According to their bosses, they fired themselves.
“We met with management of Security Services Bahamas and basically asked them how this had happened and they indicated that the issue had something to do with salaries,” Airport Authority Chairman Anthony Kikivarakis said on Tuesday.
“We told them as far as we are concerned when people are on the job at Nassau International Airport they can’t really leave their positions, particularly security positions.”
He added, “We have the right as the Authority to ask them to leave the premises if we find them disruptive, or if we find they have left their positions, so the decision was taken to have their badges returned [to us] and without a security badge or clearance badge at the airport you can’t work there.”
Airlines operating out of Nassau International Airport pay Security Services Bahamas Limited to conduct screening functions and check baggage.
According to the security company’s Chief Executive Officer Reginald Grant, the workers have reported to the company since last Friday’s incident, but they are essentially out of a job due to their illegal industrial action.
“Right now officers are off the job. As far as the company is concerned, they quit. Unless the airport decides to forgive them, they don’t have a job,” Mr. Grant said in an interview with the Bahama Journal on Tuesday.
“They had concerns about errors in their pay which were being addressed. There were some mistakes made on the payroll, but the problem is being addressed.”
He noted that Security Services Bahamas Ltd has 270 employees working throughout NIA and has contractual agreements with other businesses to provide security services.
However, Mr. Grant said he wasn’t prepared to relocate this group of workers to another company.
Mr. Kikivarakis said, “[Officials of] the company apologized and said it was their problem and they have to deal with it. For three days we had the Royal Bahamas Police Force helping us with security and now recently we have the Defence Force supplementing.
“We were always covered. We had a brief period where traffic slowed down a bit, but we were always covered.”
In the event any of the security people who walked off the job tries to resume their post, Mr. Kikivarakis said there is a list with their names on it, which would prevent them from doing so.
“At national airports you have to have people who are serious about security. We have international security guidelines and U.S. security guidelines we have to comply with if we want to remain a pre-clearance airport,” he said.
The Airport Authority Chairman noted that there are only four territories allowed pre-clearance into the United States – Canada, Bermuda, Aruba and The Bahamas.
“We are very privileged in many ways to have that pre-clearance status and we have to protect that. It’s why we have very strict security at the Nassau International Airport,” Mr. Kikivarakis said.
By: Tosheena Robinson-Blair, The Bahama Journal
