KHMH Workers Union Reaches Settlement in Pension Dispute

The trade dispute between the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Authority Workers Union (KHMHAU), the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Authority (KHMHA) has finally been settled. The union had been seeking a pension for employees who served between 2001 and 2017, when the hospital became a statutory body. Based on a directive from its membership, the union abandoned the call for pensions in favor of a compensation package. On Monday, the parties signed an agreement that the qualified staff would receive an ex-gratia payment of 5 percent of their annual salaries for each year. President of the KHMHAU, Andrew Baird, explained how the payouts will be made for the three hundred-plus qualified staffers.

Andrew Baird, President, KHMHA Workers Union: “Part of that settlement includes all active staff which is about three hundred members at the Karl Heusner that are still working as well as include those that have left the institution by retirement or resignation or any other means other than dismissal. Also for the active staff within three months of which the agreement has been signed last Tuesday which was the 8th, within three months of this signing everybody will be paid off. Once we finalize the list by the 30th of September the list will be finalized and agreed upon and then it is the hope that the agreement by December 31st of this 2025 that everybody will be paid of what they qualify for and deem to be their benefit. And for employees who are no longer employed but qualified for this benefit they will have up until the 31st of December 2026 to make their claim. From the authority’s perspective they have always been saying it will cost them about $8 million dollars of which I do not think so. I think that was just an abstract amount that was put out there to us. Throughout the negotiations we have been asking for the financials and it has not been forthcoming to us even at the end of the negotiations. But nevertheless like I said we have signed off on the agreement, it is now behind us and we can move forward towards our CBA. We have always said throughout our negotiation that the government will assist the authority financially to cover whatever agreement has been made..”

A joint committee made up of three representatives from the union and three from the hospital authority has been tasked to finalize the list of qualified staff. The agreement brings contentious negotiations that began back in 2015 to a close. Earlier this year the union took to the streets in protest. They had also instituted industrial action in the form of a go-slow and sick-out./