A group of companies that covers BGA, Brown & Co, Pitt & Co and SAL will defer the introduction of a payroll system that was expected to leave employees short of cash for several weeks, the Bermuda Industrial Union reported yesterday.

Chris Furbert, the president of the BIU, said that BDC2000 had decided to delay the implementation of a process that would mean workers were paid after their work was completed.

About 130 employees of the group, attended BIU headquarters in Hamilton after reports this week of potential strike action.

The company gave employees until the start of work yesterday to sign a consent letter from management agreeing to the changes and accepting an interest-free loan or other options.

Following the meeting between workers and the union, Mr Furbert said “the employer has agreed in principle” to defer the payment transition.

BDC2000 was contacted for comment but there was none by the time of publication.

Mr Furbert said the decision was made by the company after its management representatives met with the BIU.

Mr Furbert said: “We are certainly hopeful that we can give the workers the assurance. We’re going back to having meetings with management and before anything is decided, we will come back to them [the employees] to either say yea or say nay.”

He said the company should have approached the union prior to implementing the new payment system and noted that it has since issued an apology in that regard.

Looking ahead, he said: “Somehow we got to figure how we get a win-win, if it is at all possible.

“A win for the company … definitely got to be a win for the employees … because right now they are being cut short of 141 hours for the month of September.”

He said the discussions will continue, adding that it is up to the BIU and potentially the Department of Labour, if necessary, to “to try to find a resolution to what’s in front of us”.

Mr Furbert said the answers the union received from BDC2000 regarding employees’ pay for September were “unacceptable”.

He added: “You can’t say I’m going to get the money in January, four months after I am due to have it.”

The employees were going to be cut short of about 17 days of pay if the new automated payment system was implemented, he noted.

Up to this point, the company had paid employees three weeks in advance of work carried out.

Mr Furbert said of the 130 employees who attended the meeting today, more than 40 — who were not unionised members — signed up to be represented by the union.

He said the new members more than doubled the overall total employees who were unionised prior to the issue.

Mr Furbert claimed that BDC2000 company chairman Wendall Brown informed the BIU that non-unionised employees who attended the meeting today would not be paid for being off-duty.

However, he said those represented by the BIU decided to give up potential earnings to be in solidarity with their colleagues.

Mr Furbert added: “In my 15 years of representing organised labour, I’ve never seen anything like this. And we’ve seen employers go from weekly payroll, to biweekly payroll to monthly payroll.”

He said that Gabrielle Cann, the Government’s Director of Labour, this week contacted the union and BDC2000 to see how the department could provide any form of mediation.

However, Mr Furbert added that the company’s officials said they were not interested as talks continued with the BIU.

Staff were earlier told by the business that as the new payment process was introduced, workers would be paid only one week’s remuneration for the month of September.

They were reportedly offered loans to make up the shortfall, among other options.

But Mr Furbert said: “This thing about taking a loan from the company.

“You’re loaning my money if you’re keeping my pay for me, for September, of 141 hours.

“Whatever you are loaning me, you’re loaning me money you would have paid me for September, that don’t make any sense.”

A staff member told The Royal Gazette that BGA did not communicate with staff directly about the decision to defer the implementation of the new payment system.

“So at this point, it basically feels like we have to trust the word of the union and wait until the end of the month to see whether we actually get paid or not,” the worker explained.

The staff member said: “I genuinely don’t know what is going to happen, but I know I’m going to be on edge until September 27, wondering whether my salary is actually going to hit my account.”

They added that they were concerned about “the lack of communication from BGA” which they noted was “incredibly frustrating”.

It was pointed out that the deferral of the payment system could have been made known to staff before the meeting this morning.

The BIU said meetings with BDC2000 will be arranged for this month. Mr Furbert noted that the union intends to give workers updates on September 14 and 27.

• UPDATE: this story has been updated with the latest information