Pay dispute

A pay dispute between workers and management at Duty Free Caribbean that resulted in strike action on Tuesday morning has gone to the Labour Department for resolution.

Several workers at Bridgetown Duty Free on Broad Street and at the company’s other locations across the island walked off the job just after 8:30 a.m.

General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Toni Moore, who spoke to media representatives just after 1 p.m. following talks with the striking workers, said the company had reneged on a promise made as part of an agreement with the union to give the employees a lump sum payment last December.

“We agreed that there would be a payment – not a wage increase but a lump sum payment – that would be made for the first year of that agreement. What you are seeing here today is evidence that there is a dispute around, not what was agreed but, the fact that the lump sum payment that was agreed for the first year of the agreement that was payable in December, has not been applied,” she explained.

Moore said BWU officials had one meeting with the management of Duty Free Barbados since December, but workers were dissatisfied with how that ended, which resulted in the strike action.

She said it was unfortunate an amicable resolution could not be reached.

“What we are hoping for at this stage is that the matter will be managed at the level of the Labour Department and hopefully through the conciliatory process, we can avert further disruption between the management and its employees,” the union boss said.

BWU Head of Communications and Information Cheyne Jones said: “The Barbados Workers’ Union is particularly interested in a letter the company wrote to its employees on December 15th, 2022, in which they indicated that Duty Free Caribbean has taken the decision to give what they describe as an enhanced monetary token of appreciation in lieu of the customary voucher the employees are accustomed to receiving.

“When the BWU reached the settlement with Duty Free Caribbean as recently as November 2022, management never indicated that they would remove the customary payment to employees,” he explained.

Jones added: “We are unmoved in our stance that it cannot be implemented at this stage… Furthermore during negotiations, Duty Free Caribbean admitted they made a mistake in their letter disseminated to employees on December 15th. While the Barbados Workers’ Union understands that mistakes would be made, it insists that they also must be corrected.”

Senior Industrial Relations Officer at the BWU, Janelle Farley, told the media that the workers who were off the job consisted mostly of cashiers and customer service officers.

Efforts to reach Commercial Director at Duty-free Caribbean Holdings, Kathy Harris were unsuccessful. (shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb)