Prime Minister Philip Davis has expressed his ‘disappointment’ after the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT), voted to take industrial action, after raising concern over the long promised salary increases that were paid out last week.
‘I’m disappointed they are not (satisfied])’ Davis said, adding that ‘the increases are something that I gave to them, and they will have an opportunity during the course of their negotiations for the new industrial agreement to raise those issues there.
‘That was not a matter that was negotiated by them. It was something I did for them.’ he added.
But BUT president Belinda Wilson said that an internal poll showed that 87.8 per cent of members indicated they were prepared to take industrial action, and 92 per cent supporting a strike vote.
‘The president and executives of the BUT will advise the members on the way forward,’ Wilson said.
The BUT and the Bahamas Public Servants Union (BPSU) have been at odds with the government over pledges of pay salary raises for their members.
Officials have said the exercise aims to narrow gaps between public service pay and the wider public sector, citing base-pay gains of eight to 31 per cent over four years, including a 19 per cent rise for college graduates, such as graduate nurses and teachers.
Prime Minister Davis had promised in June that public servants across all levels would receive their increases by September.
But the payment was delayed with Prime Minister Davis indicating that the delayed payments would be made in December, leading members of both unions to take to the streets in protest even as the prime minister insisted that the payment would be made ‘before Christmas’.
But when the payments were made, Wilson described them as ‘crumbs’, noting that some teachers received nothing, while others received increases between US$150 and US$341.
She said many workers were demanding clarity on how the increases were calculated, adding that frustration was particularly high among those aware that other civil servants received US$3,000 or more, with payments retroactive to September 2024.
The Director of Communications in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Latrae Rahming defended the increase amounts, noting they should not be viewed ‘in isolation’ but rather in the context of the Davis administration’s broader ‘commitment to equity within the public sector, salary adjustments over the last four years’.
Rahming said the government will spend US$20 million annually to sustain the salary increases and that more than 17,000 civil servants received their adjustments on Wednesday.
Wilson, however, has maintained that the union is displeased and disappointed.
‘We are still awaiting the listing as to who was paid and how much,’ she said, adding ‘to add insult to injury, Prime Minister Davis says he is disappointed in the reaction of the civil servants.
‘But maybe if he had open dialogue and proper consultation with the BUT and the BPSU then he would not need to be disappointed.’