An all-important meeting was held this morning at the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU) headquarters as hundreds of employees connected to the BGA Group of companies gathered to voice serious concerns over proposed changes to the companies’ payroll system.
Employees from companies including SAL, Phoenix Stores and Pitt & Company, Brown & Co, were among those represented at the meeting, which focused on the management’s planned transition from a manual payroll system to an automated system.
BIU President Chris Furbert addressed members of the media following the meeting, saying approximately 130 employees were present in the room, although the wider group affected could number around 450 workers.
Furbert said workers are particularly concerned over information that they would receive only 32 hours of pay — equivalent to four eight-hour days — during September, potentially leaving employees without approximately 141 hours of pay, or three and a half weeks of wages.
The BIU president said the situation has created significant anxiety among workers who have mortgages, rent, utility bills, families and other financial obligations.
“People’s got rent to pay, they got bills to pay, they got to support their families,” Furbert said, stressing that employees cannot afford to go unpaid for 17 and a half days.
Furbert said while he understands the company is attempting to move from a manual payroll system to an automated one, he has never encountered a situation like this during his more than five decades representing organized labour.
He said employers have transitioned from weekly to bi-weekly and monthly payroll systems in the past, but he has never seen a transition that could result in workers going without their wages for several weeks.
The dispute also centres on communication between management and the union.
Furbert said the BIU has a collective bargaining agreement with the companies and believes the union should have been consulted before the new payroll system was introduced.
He said management has since pressed the pause button on the transition, following discussions with the union.
The Department of Labour has also become involved in discussions after the company contacted the department on September 1st regarding possible conciliation or mediation.
Furbert said the BIU may now wants the Labour Department involved in finding a solution for the workers.
He also rejected the idea of employees having to take loans from the company to cover wages that they would ordinarily have received.
Furbert questioned how workers could be expected to accept being given their September wages months later, saying such proposals were unacceptable because employees need their money when it is due.
The BIU president also addressed concerns about unionized and non-unionized employees being treated differently.
According to Furbert, management had indicated that unionized employees could be paid while non-unionized workers would not receive the same treatment.
Furbert said the union members themselves had decided that they would not accept preferential treatment and would stand with their non-unionized colleagues.
He said the workers were effectively “all in this together.”
Furbert emphasized that the BIU’s immediate objective is to ensure that workers are properly compensated and that any final decision is brought back to employees before it is implemented.
Meanwhile, TNN News understands that the proposed payroll transition has now been placed on hold.
TNN News further understands that the current fiscal year ends January 31st, with the new fiscal year beginning February 1st, and that the new payroll system could potentially be implemented at the start of that new fiscal year.
For now, discussions between the BIU, management and the Department of Labour are expected to continue as efforts are made to resolve the dispute before workers face a significant interruption to their normal wages.
TNN News will continue to follow this developing story and provide further updates as more information becomes available.
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