NASSAU, Bahamas – Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Fred Mitchell has described the decision of the Water and Sewerage Corporation’s Executive Chairman Adrian Gibson to place Kirk Cornish on unpaid administrative leave as “not only a politically motivated abuse of power,” but it “violates the terms of the industrial agreement and by extension the labour rights of Mr. Cornish.”
In a statement released on Sunday, April 18, Mr. Mitchell declared that the “PLP fully supports and stands with our colleague Kirk Cornish.”
Mr. Cornish, who is Water and Sewerage Corporation shop steward in North Abaco, is the PLP’s candidate for the North Abaco Constituency.
Mr. Mitchell noted in his statement that Mr. Cornish “was placed on unpaid administrative leave in the wake of his ratification by the PLP even though Parliament has not been dissolved, a writ of elections has not been signed by the Governor General and Kirk Cornish has not been officially nominated pursuant to the Parliamentary Elections Act.”
“We also refer to a double standard where the ratified FNM candidate for Nassau Village continues to enjoy a consultancy with a public authority,” Mr. Mitchell noted in his statement. “The Prime Minister must intervene and correct this injustice and rank and naked act of political victimization and abuse of power by his wayward Executive Chairman at the Water and Sewerage Corporation.”
