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BPL workers are pulling in eye-watering overtime while the rest of us light candles and reschedule court dates. Also inside: the government told AI companies to keep their "monstrous" data centres away from our power supply.

Let's get into it.

A leaked payroll breakdown has the whole island checking if they can get a job at BPL. Three employees in the fuel and performance department pulled in a combined $601,295 in overtime over twelve months. For two of them, that's more than triple their base salary.

Why now? The numbers surfaced right as BPL rolled out a new overtime policy: prior approval, two sign offs per payment, monthly reviews, caps for repeat offenders. The Bahamas Electrical Workers Union says the policy was pushed through without their consent, contradicting an industrial agreement signed less than two months ago.

They wasted no time with their response. They filed a formal trade dispute and told members to work strictly to rule, scheduled hours only, nothing extra, effective immediately.

Key details: The government isn't backing down. It called BPL's roughly $20 million annual overtime bill "unsustainable and unacceptable," and says the new rules aren't about denying legitimate pay, just fixing a system with "unusual patterns and anomalies."

Union president Kyle Wilson isn't buying that framing. He calls the crackdown a "distraction" from the real problem: Bahamas Grid Company, the private operator now running New Providence's transmission and distribution network. Wilson says BGC is failing customers while collecting roughly $8 million a month in taxpayer money, and he alleges the overtime fight is really about pressuring BPL linesmen into transferring to BGC, a company with no union and none of BPL's job protections.

Former BPL CEO Whitney Heastie said he was "shocked" by the numbers, calling them "off the charts." But he also revealed that BPL's overtime has historically run two and a half times the industry average, something an internal audit flagged years ago. He still disagreed with the union's move to work to rule (basically, doing only your scheduled hours and nothing extra as a protest), since overtime was never something employees were owed in the first place.

So what does this mean for you? Neither side disputes the real crisis: outages on New Providence have been some of the worst in years this summer. Whether tightening overtime actually fixes that, or just distracts from the bigger question of who's really running the grid, is what to watch next.

School soon opens back up so let’s see how many of y’all need to go back with the kids.

Solve this dead easy BGCSE question:

At the Straw Market in Nassau, a vendor sells straw hats and woven baskets. On Monday, she sold 5 hats and 3 baskets for a total of $145. On Tuesday, she sold 2 hats and 6 baskets for a total of $130.

Find the price of one hat and one basket.

Check the bottom of the newsletter for the answer.

The government's not chasing Big Tech's AI data centre gold rush, at least not the mega version. Minister of Innovation Sebas Bastian says The Bahamas will steer clear of "big monstrous" hyper-scale facilities that could strain an already-stretched electricity and water supply, going with smaller, sovereign-focused computing power instead. Honestly, after this summer, even we're side-eyeing anything that wants more of BPL's power grid than we already do.

AI data centres are notorious for guzzling power and water, and that's not a risk worth taking right now. Bastian was blunt: no hyper-scale centre is coming to New Providence unless the developer brings its own power plant. He described the approach as wanting facilities with real compute power and a regulatory framework, not just size for size's sake.

It's not a hard no, more a "show us the power and water first" approach. Proposals get judged case by case, and Bastian floated Andros, with its water abundance, as a place a larger facility could work if the developer covers its own energy needs. Legislation is also coming to make the jurisdiction attractive without opening the floodgates, built around what he called "sovereignty," meaning locally available compute power the government, businesses, and everyday Bahamians can actually rely on.

That sovereignty push ties into a bigger conversation the government opened this week: how fast Bahamians are willing to trust AI at all. Bastian said a national AI strategy is coming, covering privacy, cyber security, and human oversight, with public consultation built into the process. He was upfront that most people are currently sitting somewhere between fear and trust of the technology, and that regulation is what's supposed to close that gap.

No AI data centre is coming this way anytime soon, but the rules being written now.

⛴️ Nassau Cruise Port Is Up For Caribbean's Best. NCP scored a nomination for Caribbean's Best Cruise Terminal 2026, with The Bahamas also nominated as Best Destination. The port's tracking 6.7m passengers this year, up nearly 10% from 2025.

⚖️ BPL Outages Just Shut Down The Supreme Court. Repeated power cuts fried the court's backup generators, forcing a closure that's adding to a backlog already stretching into 2027 and 2028. The Bar Association is demanding answers.

🦞 Chat 'N' Chill Aims To Reopen In Two Weeks. The Stocking Island staple was shut by health and revenue officials after a botched renovation project. Ten employees are currently unpaid while owner KB Bowe races to finish repairs.

💧 Water Corp Chipped $5m Off Its Bill. The government agency cut what it owes Consolidated Water by over 21% last quarter, though $12.5m of the remaining balance is still considered delinquent, meaning taxpayers are quietly footing more of the tab.

🏝️ A Briland Business Breakup Just Got a Referee. A Supreme Court judge appointed an independent administrator to oversee Conch & Coconut's booking platform after its US and Bahamian co-founders turned a $6.7m revenue dispute into a two-country legal war.

🏧 Cooper Puts Banks On Notice Over Exuma Access. With ATMs down for months and Sandals restricting its machine to guests only, DPM Chester Cooper told commercial banks profiting in The Bahamas can't leave Family Island residents without cash access.

🇮🇷 Trump Says He'll Claim The Strait Of Hormuz As US Territory. Speaking at a New York police academy, Trump said he'll declare the strategic waterway American territory once the Iran war ends, citing the current US naval blockade. Iran called it "fanciful delusions" and vowed the strait "will remain Iranian."

🏀 The Lakers Just Sold For $12.5 Billion. A group led by Disney's ex-CEO Bob Iger and Josh Kushner is buying the controlling stake from Mark Walter, who bought it himself just a year ago for $10 billion. It's now the highest valuation ever for a sports team.

🇨🇴 Colombia Declares Economic Emergency After Deadly Quake. A 7.4-magnitude earthquake killed at least 200 people and left over 3,000 missing. New President Abelardo de la Espriella declared an economic emergency, and coffee exports have largely halted as rescue efforts continue.

🚢 A Navy Carrier Is Coming Home After a Mental Health Crisis. The USS George Washington will replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed over 250 days without a port call. Reports cite multiple attempted suicides among sailors amid harsh conditions tied to the Iran war.

💰 Big Companies Are Cashing In On Tariff Refunds. After the Supreme Court struck down Trump's tariffs, $129 billion in refunds have gone out. Apple alone got $2.2 billion, boosting earnings by 11 cents a share. Don't expect any of it to trickle down to you.

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— The Bay Street Brief Team