NASSAU, BAHAMAS As political parties continue efforts to jumpstart their political campaigns for the next general election, the Free National Movement (FNM) is close to wrapping up its full slate of ratified candidates.
According to FNM Chairman Carl Culmer, the FNM will name its remaining six candidates, including the seats held by the prime minister and deputy prime minister, in short order, though he did not provide an exact date.
The remaining seats include Englerston, Pineridge, Fox Hill and Seabreeze.
Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and Deputy Prime Minister Desmond Bannister, the incumbents for Killarney and Carmichael respectively, are expected to be renominated for those constituencies.
NASSAU, BAHAMAS Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) President Darrin Woods said yesterday that if the government seeks to introduce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy in The Bahamas it ought to be prepared for a “faceoff” as he condemned restaurants and other private sector employers who have sought to introduce the practice.
“We stand behind the point that the government has said that vaccination is not mandatory,” Woods said.
“No employers in this country, if the government does not mandate it to make it law can turn around and make it law, and I don’t see the government standing by and allowing it to happen.”
NASSAU, BAHAMAS Director of Labour John Pinder said yesterday that his department received numerous complaints and inquiries from associates of Sushi Rokkan after the restaurant in Old Fort Bay Town Center reportedly advised associates of a new mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy effective immediately.
“Nobody is mandated to take that,” Pinder told
Eyewitness News.
“You voluntarily decide whether you are going to take that or not. No employer has the right to force any employee to take any vaccination. That’s not law and the competent authority did not make that a part of the emergency orders, so no employer has the right to force any employee to do that.”
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Govt paid out $230 mil. in unemployment assistance Brensil Rolle.
Nearly $230 million has been paid out in unemployment assistance and benefits to Bahamians during the COVID-19 pandemic, Minister of National Insurance and Public Service Brensil Rolle said yesterday.
Rolle said the unemployment and income support was one of the most expensive endeavors ever taken on by the National Insurance Board (NIB).
“Never before in the history of The Bahamas has any government agency spent as much as NIB on income support and unemployment assistance,” he told reporters outside Cabinet.
“I looked at numbers yesterday which suggest that when we look at the entire income support and unemployment assistance program, some $219 million has already been spent. And that does not include an additional $10 million that will come in the month of February.