CTUSAB says it was left out of BAMC talks

By Emmanuel Joseph

The island’s umbrella trade union body, the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations (CTUSAB) has accused the government of sidelining the social partner in the divestiture of the state-owned sugar firm Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC).

While acknowledging the involvement of individual unions in the privatisation process, CTUSAB General Secretary Dennis De Peiza expressed the congress’ concerns about not being consulted about BAMC splitting its farming and factory operations into two separate firms. Management and staff were automatically severed and became employee shareholders of the new firms.

De Peiza said that CTUSAB had not received any formal invitations or approaches to be part of the privatisation talks. Despite this, he emphasised their obligation to assess the potential implications of the transition to a new company on BAMC employees.

In a Barbados TODAY interview, De Peiza declared: “The congress as an umbrella body has not been approached, invited to, or been involved in any discussions engineered by the government regarding this whole process.

“Somebody may come and tell you that we are wrong, but I challenge them to come and bring any evidence to say that they have invited or had any formal discussions with the congress, as an umbrella body, with respect to that.

“We were aware of government’s intention to make the change as far as stateowned enterprises [are] concerned. It would appear that they are working directly with the unions which might have a direct interest, but in terms of the congress as a body, as a social partner…I think I talk at the level of a social partnership…I think you might want to involve the labour movement as a whole in the discussions. Nothing so has happened.”

The labour leader insisted that this is a national issue with far-reaching consequences beyond the BAMC workers. He emphasised the need to discuss various aspects, including the retention of labour, income generation, and its impact on Barbadian consumers as a whole.

He said: “There may be things that impact on the quality of people’s service and other things of that nature; costs that may have to be absorbed by the consumer. Those are things that will have to be addressed.”
Amid these developments, the Sugar Industry Staff Association (SISA), which represents some 50 monthly-paid staff including foremen, supervisors and middle managers, has been closely monitoring the privatisation process. President Dwight Miller said his organisation is currently involved in negotiations but refrained from making extensive comments at this stage.

“So far, the conversations have been pretty cordial and we are taking things step by step,” Miller said.
Last month, around 370 management and staff of BAMC received letters informing them of their redundancy as the government proceeds with its plan to exit the sugar industry. Chief Executive Officer

Orlanda Atherley confirmed that he along with the workers had automatically become shareholderemployees as BAMC transitioned into the two privately owned companies resulting from the divestment.

The new majority shareholder company taking over Portvale, the BAMC-owned sugar factory, is the Barbados Sustainable Energy Co-operative Society Limited (Co-op Energy) which is expected to manage the sugar-making business and sell electricity to the national grid from burning the sugar cane by-product, bagasse, to generate power.

President of Co-op Energy, Retired Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Browne indicated that his company was on track to take over and expected to begin operations in August.

The severed workers have been informed that they will be employed by a private company as 45 per cent shareholders. Co-op Energy is forming two companies – the Agricultural Business Company (ABC) which will manage the approximately 5 000 acres of land that belonged to the BAMC, and the Barbados Energy and Sugar Company (BESCO) which will manage the operations of the energy plant.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb