Tired of waiting in vain for permanent appointments, public officers are to propose to Government that appointments be delivered within a year to prevent officers working for extended periods of time, the National Union of Public Workers said Monday.
This was one of the issues raised and mandates carried at the NUPW’s annual general conference last month, Acting General Secretary Wayne Waldron told Barbados TODAY.
He declared that public workers have been jaded by layoffs in recent years and are becoming more adamant with their demands for immediate job security.
He also noted increasing concerns about a perceived lack of transparency in relation to the appointment practices within some government departments and state-owned enterprises.
Waldron said: “The mandate of the conference was that people be appointed within a year rather than three years. That would be sent as a submission or proposal that appointments be done after a year.”
Section 13 of the Public Service Act mandates that no established office should be allowed to remain vacant for a period of more than one year except with the permission of the Governor General on the advice of the Public Service Commission or if the office is one that the minister for the public service determines ought not to be filled.
Section 14 also gives the minister authority to create temporary offices for a period of no more than three years.
According to the NUPW official, out of this legislation arose the custom that temporary public officers could act for a period of three years, after which they would be entitled to appointment.
But he said that for many years, officers acted in temporary positions for as many as 10 to 15 years under the impression that job security would remain a major characteristic of public service.
Then came the announcement of 3,000 public sector layoffs in December 2013 under the Freundel Stuart administration. This was followed by another 1,000 layoffs announced less than five months after the Mia Mottley administration came to power.
Said Waldron: “It was taken for granted that once you get a job in the public sector, to the point that people got loans based on that temporary appointment and you worked sometimes until further notice. So people were not too disturbed about when the appointment would come.
“But nowadays, if you don’t get that permanent appointment, the banks are not giving you any financing because they see you as a liability and a risk, because temporary appointments are no longer secure appointments even though you might be working well and qualified.
“Nowadays, people are very concerned with temporary appointments, and they cannot get on with their lives because the institutions are not giving you any substantial credit… and now one year has been proposed as a reasonable time.”
The new mandate from NUPW members also came in the midst of allegations of unfair dismissal in relation to a Barbados Community College (BCC) maid who was dismissed “without justification” after functioning for four years “without complaint”.
The college reportedly proceeded to conduct interviews for the post. But after protests from the NUPW and other ancillary staff, the employee was later reinstated.
Waldon told Barbados TODAY: “It is felt that in some cases, people get their appointments based on who they know or who they are connected to. That is a feeling and that is a view that some workers hold.
“It happens on boards and in state-owned enterprises where people from time to time complain to the union that based on considerations that they don’t think were fair, they were overlooked for appointments when they would have met the criteria for the appointment and were there ahead of the other person.”
The NUPW general secretary also vehemently refuted the perception that people who complain about public sector supersession are those who have put in time served but failed to acquire the necessary qualifications.
He said: “In fact, the public service is a place where people are qualified and overqualified. So people coming to you from within the system saying they have been unfairly overlooked definitely would have gone and studied and gotten the qualifications.”
In relation to the most recent bid, Waldron noted that another major hurdle for workers would be the slow pace with which the “wheels of government” turn.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)
