DLP accuses Gov’t of using clean-up workers

By Kimberley Cummins

Used and discarded!

That was former leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Verla Depeiza’s unapologetic take on how the Mia Mottley administration has treated the 3 000 temporary workers in the National Clean-up Programme who will be out of work at the end of March.

Speaking at a joint meeting of the St Michael North West and the St Michael West Central branches of the DLP on Sunday night, the attorney-at-law claimed the workers were being placed on the breadline because they had already served their purpose.

“To see them used as a political football and kicked about and kicked to the curb when their purpose for that was done burns my belly. We took those young people and – I don’t care how anybody takes this – we used them. They were used for political purposes and capital in this country and the minute that an election is over they start to castigate them, and you pull them down,” she charged.

The workers were initially employed to assist with cleaning up the ash from eruptions at the La Soufriere volcano in neighbouring St Vincent and the Grenadines in April 2021. They then worked on the roadways beautification programme.

Last week, at a meeting with the workers at the Wildey Gymnasium, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Santia Bradshaw told them their contracts would come to an end on March 31. She said the Government intended to implement a transition programme that will allow some of the workers the opportunity to enter a skills training programme and then seek other employment.

Speaking to the theme The Barbados Economy and Cost of Living, Depeiza also addressed the cost of living issue and the resulting effect on the standard of living of Barbadians. 

She acknowledged that there were some external factors beyond the Government’s control but added that she believed there were other factors, such as transportation costs, that could be addressed.

Depeiza argued that the Barbados Labour Party administration’s decision to no longer back regional airline LIAT had tremendous negative consequences, not solely in terms of intra-regional travel but also in the transportation of goods and services. 

“I am not just talking about the international freight that we have no control over. We had control over LIAT and we gave it up. We allowed that to pass and that has contributed significantly . . . to the increase in the cost of living in this country, though no one is talking about it,” she charged. 

“The Democratic Labour Party in 2021 urged the administration to take taxes off of freight. You don’t have any control over freight. It is, to my mind, a money grab; and the taxes are still on freight and that is contributing to our cost of living increase and it is something that the Government can address immediately,” the former DLP leader added. 

(KC)