It was rumoured that BAHA was going to fire ten political persons, but the axe came down on Friday when 4 were fired. It started badly enough, with the original letter of termination originally coming from the Ministry of Agriculture, not BAHA. But the BAHA letter went out on Friday and that has angered the Public Service Union who says it is an act of utmost bad faith because negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement were underway. And according to President Jacqueline Willoughby what makes it worse is that it’s all political. Willoughby has been meeting with BAHA’s management and with Minister Rene Montero and she says it’s all been mishandled, so much so that she claims not even the board knew of the firings.
Jacqueline Willoughby, PSU President
“It seems to me that it is just a witch hunt from the beginning and at the union we don’t play politics. But going on the very words of the Minister, they were seen campaigning for the PUP. Be that as it may, we have outlined a process that they should take and the process is simple. I asked the Minister if he saw any of them campaigning and he said yes. I said then why haven’t you put it in a letter as yet. Put it in a letter and call them to explain. If they cannot explain and you have evidence, then they have a right to go through the door.
But how is a worker to feel if you will now come in with your wand and start waving and say people must go home. I am surprised, I am totally surprised at the bad advice that was given to them by the two counsels from the Attorney General’s Ministry because even if all else fails, then where does the constitution sit with this. Where does the constitution sit with this? Of course Jules we have no intention to let this matter just end there.
How well does it sit for you to now come and determine you will just fire people and not check with the union with whom we’re now negotiating? That doesn’t hold, that doesn’t hold well at all. So we are denouncing publicly, we are condemning what the Minister is doing and we call on the Prime Minister, we call on the Prime Minister. He needs to look into this situation because irrespective of what happened, it took PUP voters as well as UDP voters to give them the landslide victory that they have.
So I am calling on the Prime Minister to check his Ministers and I want to urge him, I agree some of the fat needs to be trimmed, but it is has been the political directorate that has caused the fat. So it is that they really have to set back and examine what they are doing and give us the rationalization of human resources that we have asked for. We have asked for that because we know the Public Service needs to be properly rationalized. So I am calling on the Prime Minister to look at that.”
Jules Vasquez,
What will you do next?
Jacqueline Willoughby,
“Jules I am going to leave that for you to find out. That part of it I am going to leave for you to find out. I just want to send a sound warning so that they understand that we will not put up with it. We said no more firings, let the firings stop unless the proper procedure is followed.”
BAHA Manager Nery Sanz has also resigned.
