By JUAN MCCARTNEY

Guardian Senior Reporter

juan@nasguard.com

NASSAU — The Bahamas Nurses Union (BNU) is claiming it has officially asked Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes for leave to conduct a strike vote, but Foulkes told The Nassau Guardian that he is not aware of any such request.

BNU legal counsel Obie Ferguson said that just because the union has asked for a strike vote does not mean that it will actually strike in protest of the government's refusal to provide health insurance for its members in the upcoming fiscal year.

The BNU's reported move comes as talks involving the BNU, the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) and the Ministry of Health continue this morning. However, it is still unclear what will happen in today's talks because despite the fact that the BNU filed a trade dispute against the PHA and the Ministry of Health last week, The Guardian recently discovered that BNU has no legally binding agreement registered with the Industrial Tribunal.

"The role of the Ministry of Labour is simply to oversee the talks," Foulkes told The Guardian, claiming he too is unsure of exactly what will happen today. "Of course you know that the employer in this case is the Public Hospitals Authority and the Ministry of Health and we'll have to wait and see (this morning) what position the employers will take."

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said last week that the government would resolve the dispute on Monday (today), if all BNU members were back on the job.

The contracts were signed more than two years ago, but were never registered because the parties involved failed to make the changes suggested by President of the Industrial Tribunal Harrison Lockhart when the draft agreements were submitted.

Ferguson explained why the draft agreements were not changed per Lockhart's instruction.

"The agreement was never changed because the recommendations would in effect change what the parties agreed to," he said. "What the Tribunal was trying to do is make recommendations that certain terms be introduced into the agreement. (Lockhart) is acting outside of his jurisdiction (and) the Tribunal has no coercive powers."

Ferguson said the government still has a legal employer/employee obligation to individual members of the BNU to provide them with what the terms of the contract specifies.

Director of Labour Harcourt Brown said that "it has been my experience that where a document is not registered it does not necessarily carry the weight for the enforcement of that document should the need arise.

"However, that does not prevent the parties from mutually agreeing that notwithstanding the fact that the technical aspect of the registration of the document did not take place," Brown said. "That does not prevent the parties from coming to a settlement of any differences that may arise from that document."

When asked if the Tribunal would still be legally obligated to hear the concerns of the BNU should the conciliation talks fail, Brown said he would leave the matter up to the Tribunal.

"It's a legal question that I'd prefer not to try to address at this time except to say that if the document is not registered by the Tribunal, then obviously there are certain questions that may arise as regards to whether the Tribunal would be in a position to arbitrate on that matter," said Brown.

Lockhart told The Guard-ian that as no industrial agreement is in place, the Industrial Tribunal would have to receive a request from the minister of Labour asking it to consider the case and then it would decide if it had the jurisdiction to do so.

Ferguson cited a case several years ago - Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union (BHCAWU) vs. Industrial Tribunal 2003 - in which Justice Jon Isaacs ruled that Lockhart could not refuse to register an agreement between the Our Lucaya Beach and Golf Resort and the hotel union.

Ferguson said that the court ruled that the Tribunal acted outside of its statutory jurisdiction by raising the issue of the capacity of the union and Our Lucaya to contract.

"I am very surprised that the president would be putting forward that kind of position," Ferguson said. "The employer had been living up to the terms of the contract for two years, so the point is moot."