The leader of a local trade union is taking a case for non-payment of gratuity and pension to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Head of the Unity Trade Union (UTU) Senator Caswell Franklyn said today he will be writing the IMF shortly to get clarity on a matter in which he said the non-payment of these entitlements to a former Transport Board worker is being attributed to the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, which is supported by the fund.
“I was in talks with a woman who was very distraught. She worked 33 and a third years for the Government, and now the time comes to get her pension and gratuity, they are saying at Government Headquarters that this BERT programme . . . it can’t be paid,” Franklyn told Barbados TODAY.
“I am going to write the IMF on it. Cause if they are blaming the IMF for this woman not getting her gratuity and pension, I am going to write the IMF,” the union leader insisted.
He argued that this is a debt to Government which is not supposed to be carrying any debt under the IMF loan arrangement.
“This lady worked at the Transport Board . . . and they are saying the Transport Board doesn’t have enough money to pay. But the Transport Board belongs to the Government, so the Government has got to pay it,” he stressed.
