Buses will be running again on Saturday

The dispute over a driver who was fired after failing to take a drug test has been referred to an independent arbitration panel.

The panel will decide if Government was right to sack Jennifer Harvey for insubordination.

On the advice of union officials, she refused repeated requests to take a hair follicle drug test in the aftermath of an incident, which left a blind female passenger needing hospital treatment for a hand injury.

The union has argued that its collective agreement with Government, including the transport department, contains no provision for ‘hair follicle’ testing and is for urine testing only.

Mr Furbert accepted today that Ms Harvey and other bus drivers had signed a pre-contract agreement with Government indicating that they consented to ‘any type of test considered necessary’.

But he questioned the validity of the document and said the policy had not been cleared by the BIU, which has a clear agreement on drug testing for its members.

“We are the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for these workers and this is the first time we have seen this document.”

The issue of the test will be one of the areas of conflict for an independent arbitration panel to adjudicate.

Government and the union agreed to go to arbitration after a series of meetings this morning.

Ms Harvey ‘remains terminated’ until the conclusion of the arbitration process, which Mr Furbert said would be ‘before Labour Day’.

She will be reimbursed for the pay she lost while suspended between June 28 and August 17, when she was fired, after Government agreed it had erred in placing her on unpaid suspension.

Arbitrators will have to decide on a number of key issues including management’s own slow response to the accident, detailed in a Health and Safety report seen by the Bermuda Sun.

Mr Furbert, speaking at a press conference at the BIU headquarters today, said the compromise had followed a series of meetings with Government this morning.

He said a meeting with Transport Minister Terry Lister had been “respectfully – a waste of time”.

But the arbitration arrangement was agreed at a later meeting with Premier Paula Cox and a handful of Cabinet ministers.

Mr Furbert said he was confident that the BIU would win the case at arbitration and that Ms Harvey would be re-instated.

He accepted again that mistakes had been made on both sides but said the management of the Department of Public Transport must take a share of the blame.

He cautioned the public against rushing to judgement on the drivers who had come out on strike, saying “they have feelings too”.

And he said that he believed the public would be more sympathetic to the bus drivers’ cause once the full story came out.

He said he would not object to the arbitration process – normally a behind-closed-doors affair – being held in public. And he promised that if that did not happen, the BIU would make the report and result of the process public, after the fact.

“We have nothing to hide,” he said, insisting that the BIU would be vindicated.

He added: “All the evidence points to mismanagement.”

He said there had been repeated issues with the management of public transport and recommended an inquiry.

“Maybe we have to have a board of inquiry for DPT. There could be things the union needs to do better, there are certainly things the management needs to do better.”

In a separate statement, Government said Premier Paula Cox said she had rejected calls for an inquiry.

The statement read: “Premier Cox indicated that the ‘key and fundamental issue at hand, was to get the members of the Bus Operators and Allied Division of the Bermuda Industrial Union back to work’.

“The Premier noted that public safety and public interest issues are key.

“And Premier Cox indicated that the priority was to have the matter referred to a Tribunal under the Labour Disputes Act 1992.

“Premier Cox also said that the request was for the bus operators to return to work as soon as possible.

“The Premier directed that the terms of reference for the Tribunal should be finalized soonest, with a notice being Gazetted as soon as possible.

“Agreement was reached that the employee should remain terminated.