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Dockworkers’ overtime ban continues

Backlog: Work gets underway at the Hamilton Docks last Monday morning as trucks were lined up to be loaded and unloaded with hundreds of containers that would have originally been moved off the docks on Sunday night. A similar backlog is expected this week as the overtime ban continues. The container ships Oleander and Somers Isles are shown. ( Photo by Glenn Tucker )

Perishable goods are likely to remain on board The Oleander instead of on supermarket shelves for the second weekend in succession as dockworkers’ overtime ban continues.Dockworkers are refusing to work weekends or evenings as part of an ongoing row between Bermuda Industrial Union and dock managers Stevedoring Services.This means after The Oleander arrives at the Island tomorrow, there will be nobody to unload its meat, dairy products and other perishables until Monday morning.Supermarket bosses had hoped the overtime ban would be finished by this weekend, after Economy Minister Kim Wilson served a binding arbitration notice last Monday.However, it’s understood the overtime ban has continued throughout the week.The ban came into effect on Wednesday, August 10, after a breakdown in negotiations between the BIU and Stevedoring; 25 workers had declined a request to work three- or four-day weeks depending on the number of ships arriving in the dock.Meanwhile Assistant Commissioner of Corrections Keeva Joell-Benjamin yesterday said prison officers had still not issued a strike notice; they have demanded serious regime changes to deal with a new kind of inmate population and are reportedly considering strike action.