Port did not engage the Union in decision – Vanloo

President of the Public Service Union (PSU) Cools Vanloo claims that the Union was not meaningfully engaged by the board of directors of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Port Authority (SVGPA), in the decision to disband the Port Police.{{more}}

“We were not called in, so that at least the union could have put its options on the table, which is in line with good industrial relations… We are saying come talk to us, let us know what’s going on, because people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake, these are people who have mortgages. One guy says he is going to lose his house,” Vanloo said in an interview with SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday.

Vanloo said that as far as he is concerned, more than 80 persons would be out of work when the transition is made to the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force, and this is troubling.

He also says that there is no guarantee that the soon to be unemployed Port Police officers will be allowed to join the ranks of the local police force.

“If you have to re-apply, there is no guarantee, and that cannot be enforced by the law. A severance is final and the Protection of Employment Act doesn’t say that any employer has any obligation to re-employ anybody that was severed,” Vanloo stated.

The president said that his organization “is still not clear as to the issue or issues” that have led to the board’s decision, and with negotiations on a collective agreement on behalf of the Port Police just concluded, the board’s decision was unexpected.

“I don’t know where this is coming from. Nowhere in these discussions did the issue of severing the Port Police came up.

“We are still not sure, and we are getting all of these contradictory statements as to why the action was taken, but we don’t know.”

Last week, manager of the SVGPA Bishen John said that the decision to disband the Port Police was taken to bring the security of the ports under the control of the Commissioner of Police, as outlined in the Port Authority Act.

Prior to that, members of the Port Police had raised concerns about working conditions, and were alleged to have staged a sick-out in protest.

Vanloo pointed out that as long as there are employers and employees, there will be conflicts, and to the best of his knowledge, there were no major conflicts that should warrant the disbanding of the Port Police.

He said that it was his hope that the matter could be resolved in a manner that would see the men and women of the Port Police, remaining employed after the August deadline is past.

“We don’t have any major issues. All those things have been resolved through the law, so why would we want to see it differently?

“There are other outstanding matters, which under the new collective agreement we were negotiating, some of those matters were written into the agreement, in terms of the resolution for those matters, and of course in any employer/employee/union situation there will always be issues; we don’t live in a perfect world.

“The Union anticipates that there may be still opportunity to have the matter resolved outside of the announced decisions, and this essentially means having the persons maintain their employment status,” he said.(JJ)