Antigua St John’s – Unionised staff at FirstCaribbean International Bank (FCIB) took industrial action on Friday, in the midst of ongoing negotiations over staff reductions.
The bank has since apologized to its customers, noting that it had not been given prior notice of the planned action.
A release from FCIB said, “The Bank has strictly followed all procedures under the Labour Code and the Collective Agreement with the Union in addressing the redundancies.
Despite the Bank’s efforts the Union has disagreed with the Bank on the method of implementing the redundancies, as a result of which the staff took this most unfortunate action.”
It said the union had been engaged over a period of several months to discuss the issue.
The release added, “FirstCaribbean asserts that, as with every jurisdiction in which it does business, it adheres to the laws of Antigua & Barbuda, and operates according to both the letter and spirit of the Collective Labour Agreement, signed with the Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union which represents its unionised staff in Antigua.”
Nonetheless, the bank said it will remain open to continuing talks with the AWU to resolve the employees’ concerns.
There has been no statement so far from the union on the issue.
We all need to get real and stop blaming the government for everything. If First Caribbean is cutting staff throughout the region how is this government to blame. This is the reason why a large amount of voters are unsupportive of the PLP even though the FNM are suspect.
@ Linda Denise Evans
What criteria is the bank using to select the persons to be terminsated?
How many weeks/months salary does the termination pay package cover?
I know its a waste of time but have you engaged the Ministry of Labour yet?
I can say if FirstCaribbean tells the press in the (BAHAMAS)that they are following the law and the collective agreements in the Bahamas it would be another lie. We (UNION)have NOT received the required information NOT ONE PIECE OF PAPER on this matter….. WHEN WILL THE LIES STOP EVEN DURING HOLY WEEK SHAME!!!!
When will the Bahamian People wake up, smell the coffee and picket anything that is not Bahamian. First Caribbean took every DAMM thing to Barbados and fired the staff. Now they are doing the same thing. Bahamians need to stop this madness and bank at the Bank of the Bahamas.
The same thing applies the Cable and wireless. This wutless Govermnent sold us out. It aint long now we are going to show them what we are made of.
The worst bank in the bahamas!!! Hated them when they were CIBC….hate them more when they merged with barclays. THE WORST!!! sorry for the employees though….sorry for them for even having to work at that anti-bahamian bank.
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