Volunteers awaiting three months stipend

It’s not shaping up to be a very Merry Christmas for several volunteer workers in the National Vaccination Programme.
That’s because with just four days left before the highlyanticipated holiday many of them have not yet received payment for work done in October, November and December.

All hope is not lost though, as Co-coordinator of the programme Major David Clarke told Barbados TODAY every attempt is being made to ensure the workers were paid before Christmas.

One worker who spoke on condition of anonymity said the situation was unbearable.
She admitted that while she did not want to get vaccinated she made the decision to do so because that was the only way she would have been allowed to work in the programme.

Almost in tears, the mother said she had not been able to buy gifts for her children because she had not been paid since September.

“We understand that we are volunteering but our problem is getting our money. The ministry said they sent the money to the Treasury but the Treasury is taking forever. This is weeks now I have been waiting for my October pay and also my November pay gone in and this is December and I can’t get none of my pay,” she complained.

“The next few days is Christmas, my bills are due and we really need to get some money. I can’t even get my children a turkey, because we don’t eat pork, for Christmas. I can’t even get them a gift and it is the worst feeling in the world to know that you work and work hard and because it is a stipend and because you are a volunteer this is the way that you are being treated.”

When contacted Major Clarke told Barbados TODAY he had spent the whole day today trying to rectify the situation.

“I sent the list up to the ministry for approval, the ministry then keys it in and it goes to the Treasury. I spent the whole afternoon up at the Accounts Department trying to sort it out.

“There are a lot of different reasons why some people haven’t gotten paid. Some of the reasons include they gave us the wrong branch number for their account or they gave us an incorrect TAMIS number. There are a whole lot of different reasons which I was trying to sort out today.

“They are slowly working through and keying the information. I can’t tell you that everybody will get paid before Christmas but they were trying to work on it,” Major Clarke said.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb