After receiving a petition signed by over 100 customs officers requesting they be paid money agreed to by the Bahamas Customs and Immigration Allied Workers Union (BCIAWU), Labour Minister Shane Gibson said yesterday that he has recommended that the officers be paid, despite the union's failure to conclude and sign an industrial agreement.

"Over 130 custom officers signed a petition and sent it to me and they are requesting the government pay the custom officers the money negotiated already by the union since the union seems as though they don't want to sign the industrial agreement," Gibson told The Nassau Guardian.

"I think under normal circumstances we would have looked at waiting until the union signed the agreement, but the fact that there is none and has never been a collective bargaining agreement in place, I'm recommending to my colleagues that we pay the officers since the officers want to be paid.

"Generally speaking, the way the law works, you can't unilaterally take away benefits from employees, but you can give benefits at anytime.

"Because of the fact that there is not a collective bargaining agreement in place and there has never been one in place, I'm going to recommend that we pay the customs officers because they want to be paid their money."

Gibson said he received the petition on Wednesday afternoon. The petition said, "The bargaining unit has lost confidence in the leadership of (BCIAWU President) Sloane T. Smith and the entire executive board and no longer wishes for them to negotiate on our behalf."

The letter also requested the appointment of an interim board of trustees of the union following the dissolution of the executive board.

It also asked that the interim trustees be named at a meeting of the union staff at customs house within 72 hours of delivery of the petition. Smith could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Gibson said he will issue a letter to Smith by today, advising him of the way forward. "Only recommendations were made so far, but I'll send him a letter outlining what we will do," he said.

"They asked us for some other things in the letter.

"There is a process in dealing with those other things. "The only part we are addressing immediately is the part where they are requesting payment, and we will look at paying all the officers their monies since they are requesting it.

"It is some allowances and other things that were negotiated already, but the union has refused to sign the industrial agreement. "What the union wants is for us to agree to pay staff who don't wear uniforms, uniform allowances. "They also want shift allowances when they don't work shifts.

"And because of this, they refuse to sign the industrial agreement, but since the custom officers are asking to be paid, I'm going to recommend that they be paid." On Wednesday, Smith spoke to The Guardian about the longstanding issue. "Our issue is simple: In 2014 we signed off on an agreement," he said.

"In 2016 we signed off on another agreement. "Those are the things we agreed we would marry and we would have a complete agreement. "All that is left to be done is for the government to simply say 'Let's sign that thing'.

"The government wants to cut the bargaining unit up. They already agreed on who the bargaining unit is and now they want to take out all the clerical workers. That's a problem.

"You can't ask me to jeopardize the unit and separate the uniform officers from the clerical officers; otherwise people can take us to court and they themselves can sue us.

"Minister Gibson knows this." Smith said he believes Gibson has a "personal problem". He called on Prime Minister Perry Christie to "deal with him". Smith claimed matters concerning promotion, hazardous pay and other benefits remain unresolved.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian