The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) has accused the Health Service Workers Union (HSWU) of acting in bad faith over their conditions of service.
In a statement on November 7, HSWU issued a November 11 ultimatum to the government, demanding the swift resolution of stalled negotiations regarding their collective agreement.
The union’s leadership expressed frustration over prolonged delays in the negotiation process, warning of potential actions should their demands go unmet.
However, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FWSC, Ing. Benjamin Arthur, in a statement on Friday blamed the leadership of HSWU for sidestepping negotiations.
According to him, the parties met on October 9 to conclude and sign an agreement.
“At the tail end of the meeting, the union made an appeal that the parties should hold off on signing because HSWU thought that the majority of their members would not benefit from the agreement, and wished to table new items for negotiations.
“The government team cautioned them that this new demand would prolong the negotiations. However, the government team requested HSWU to put their new demand into writing,” portions of the statement read.
The statement added that on November 5, HSWU was invited for a meeting on November 7, only for them to hurriedly issue a press release just hours before the meeting.
The FWSC described this move as an unfair labor practice and a show of bad faith.
The Commission has therefore called on the leadership of HSWU to retract the press release and issue an apology.
“Threatening and intimidating a party despite all the goodwill that the government has demonstrated amounts to bad faith, and the government cannot be accused of any delays,” the Commission cautioned.
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