Evans: Trade unions monitoring COVID spread, remote work a last resort

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise at an alarming rate, President of the National Congress of Trade Unions of The Bahamas (NCTUB) Bernard Evans said the umbrella union is closely monitoring the trend, cautioning that the workforce may have to work from home again where possible.

Evans said, however, that given the improvements in the economy in the past several months, it should be a last resort.

He said at this stage, the unions are in constant dialogue to determine the best way forward.

“What has been happening is we have been asked by our worker representatives ‘what should we do, we notice these trends are heightening, what is our next step?’ We haven’t done anything yet, but by Friday we hope to have more concrete direction of where we are headed as far as the workplace experience is,” Evans told Guardian Business.

Luckily, Evans said, the Omicron strain, which health officials suspect is behind this fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, is not as vicious as the 

previous strains. He said for the time being it is imperative for workers to take personal responsibility and make self-perseverance a priority to protect themselves and their families.

“We recently signed this MOU with government and we’re so happy about that too and I must say that since then, we do have an improved dialogue with the government in respect to these issues. We noticed a notice came out through NIB about the closure of some of their offices and again it looks like we’re going to have to take a roll back at having to work from home again when we can. We understand the economy has seemingly started to come to some kind of normalcy.” Evans said.

“We will continue to monitor. If it becomes an alarming rate as is trending, then we will increase our dialogue with government to ensure certain protocols are in place. In the meantime, we are still asking all workers, all non-workers and the Bahamian public at large to continue to honor the protocols, wash hands, wear your mask, keep your distance when you can and avoid large crowds, particularly our customer facing workers and those who have to interact with the customers. Please do a double take on your protection. Self-preservation is the best, so look out for yourself and your family.”

Daily new cases are being reported in the hundreds by health officials, with more than 2,000 cases reported in the past week alone.

The government has said it will not impose any lockdown orders, which occurred under the previous Minnis administration.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/evans-trade-unions-monitoring-covid-spread-remote-work-a-last-resort/