Labour needs attention – Atherley

Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley is expressing grave concern over a number of labour issues on the island but questions whether labour unions were prepared to push for change.

Atherley outlined his areas of concern during an interview with Barbados TODAY on Thursday in light of ongoing strike action by member nurses of the Unity Workers’ Union (UWU), led by Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn.

While staying away from commenting specifically on the strike action by the healthcare workers, Atherley told Barbados TODAY he was confident that Franklyn was following the correct procedures, while dismissing talks that his actions were politically motivated.

However, speaking more broadly on labour matters across the island, Atherley said he was very concerned about a number of labour practices.

Atherley pointed to the non-payment of National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions, as one example.

Earlier this week, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn disclosed that Government was currently seeking to catch up on settling some $6 million in outstanding NIS payments for some civil servants, which formed part of an overall $1.9 billion in outstanding arrears for goods and services supplied to government under past administrations.

Atherley said in addition to the non-payment of NIS contributions, Government should seek to correct the practice of employers telling freelancers they are self-employed but “are being told when they must come to work, how many hours they must work [and] when they must take lunch”.

“They are told everything that a contracted employee can be told and then you are told you cannot benefit from those provisions which are set up to allow for social security benefits. That is unfortunate. I think government is now trying to address that, having for a long time, scolded the private sector for doing the thing they themselves were doing,” said Atherley.

“I have the concern that workers are being pressured. We do not have a policy of mandatory vaccination in Barbados, but workers are being pressured to either subject themselves to mandatory vaccination or they lose their jobs. I have been approached by people who are so confronted,” he said.

Since the COVID-19 vaccination drive was rolled out, several employers have indicated that new hires will require to be fully vaccinated in order to be employed. Despite there being no requirement in law for mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus, some private sector firms have also been implementing what they refer to as “safe zones”, which require employees to either be fully vaccinated or be subjected to regular COVID-19 testing.

Atherley also raised concern that there were still some companies that were not allowing workers to join a labour union of their preference.

“This is something that foreign investors engage in. It is really an ugly feature of investment in Barbados, that people because they have money and can invest in enterprise in Barbados they can treat workers how they want, make them work under all kinds of conditions and pay them as little as they want, but they don’t allow them the benefit of unionization, which is ridiculous,” he said.

“I have concerns when people even in the public service who work can’t expect to be paid on time,” said Atherley.

Declaring that those labour practices were “serious issues”, Atherley questioned the strength of the labour movement, suggested that it should be turning up the heat on Government on the matters of concern.

“We have labour problems in Barbados. I have concerns over the posture of the labour movement in Barbados at this time and the question is are they vigilant enough and are they virile enough in challenging this government with respect to some of the goings-on in Barbados around industrial relations? I do have some serious concerns,” he told Barbados TODAY.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb