NSC starts move to Gymnasium

The state-run National Sports Council (NSC), which is currently experiencing environmental challenges at its Blenheim, St Michael headquarters, started to relocate its operations today to the Wildey Gymnasium.

However, Acting Director Neil Murrell told Barbados TODAY he did not expect the transition to be completed before early next week.

Murrell said while some of the 25 administration employees were able to move to their temporary offices, others continued to function from the existing building on My Lord’s Hill today.

“All staff were not moved. There were some other persons in the accounts department because we are still undertaking an audit. So those persons who have to do the audit, they have some timelines to complete…they were operating at the building,” he said.

Yesterday, some workers were forced to evacuate the building after complaining of feeling unwell due to the effects of a strong chemical scent which has been lingering from a weekend industrial cleaning.

The workers had also called in their bargaining agent, the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) claiming an infestation of bed bugs.  They had also reported that the office chairs which had been sent for cleaning were brought back wet.

Deputy General Secretary of the BWU Dwaine Paul, who was on the scene, welcomed a subsequent decision by management to close the offices for the rest of the week and relocate staff.

“We should be able to get things across by early next week. I can’t give you a specific time because there are a lot of files here. Files were moved today and areas of the front office [and] part of the registry was moved today,” said the acting director this afternoon.

He also responded to concerns expressed by the union as to whether the files which were being transferred to the gymnasium would be sanitized.

“The files have been sanitized. We discussed it on Friday. Some of the people you may have spoken to were not at that meeting. We had a meeting with the staff on Friday last week.  There were persons who came to work this week who were not present last week,” Murrell added.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb