BIU, Govt sign pay deal
Government and Bermuda Industrial Union have shaken hands on a 1.65 percent pay increase for workers to end their long-running dispute.Assistant Cabinet Secretary Judith Hall-Bean and BIU president Chris Furbert took part in a signing ceremony at BIU headquarters yesterday, for a retroactive deal going back to January 1.Every BIU member, regardless of their wage, will get $17 a week extra; slightly more than the union asked for in its final bid, but without the overtime concessions workers were hoping for. In a row which rumbled on for most of this year, Premier Paula Cox turned down the BIU's pledge for Government Ministers to take a symbolic pay cut themselves.But Government's final offer was an improvement on the proposed wage freeze, with straight time pay for overtime work, which was on the table earlier in the year.