Despite a visit to the Labour Office and promises of payment from his former employer, Copacabana Beach Club, Jovian Skeete is yet to receive all the wages he is entitled to.
Things reached a boiling point this afternoon when the 24-year-old turned up at the Bay Street, St Michael business expecting to be paid the earnings owed to him after he was fired from his job on November 4.
But Skeete, who worked as a porter at the Beach Club for four months, told Barbados TODAY his cheque was less than the money the Labour Department told him he was to receive.
Jovian Skeete
The soft-spoken former employee complained that the short-pay had become the norm and had contributed to him being fired from his job.
Skeete said he was hired to work as a porter by Copacabana in July.
He recalled that his troubles started soon after when he realized his weekly pay cheque was regularly short of what he had worked for.
As a result, Skeete said he approached management about the recurring issue and was promised it would be rectified.
He told Barbados TODAY: “I came to work every day and was never late, but when it came to my pay I was always being short paid. They introduced a system where you would clock in and clock out, but when it was time for me to get paid it was the same thing.
“This was going on for about three months and I decided to go and talk to the manager about it. The week after we spoke my money was right, but then the week after that the problems started back again.”
To make matters worse, Skeete said he was being asked to work on his off days but was not being paid the time and a half which his contract stated he was due.
He said he once again approached management about not being fairly compensated.
Then the next week his bosses brought on a new employee they asked him to train, he said.
And after training the new worker Skeete said he was dismissed from his job.
“The next week I was called into the office and told that I had a poor performance and I would be let go,” he said.
Skeete said he went straight to the Labour Office to explain his situation.
An officer who dealt with his case tabulated exactly how much money he was owed by the company.
He explained that after a week of visiting the Labour Office he was told to collect his cheque from Copacabana, but when he arrived and saw the cheque it was $200 short of what he was to be given.
Skeete said he refused to accept the cheque and subsequently called the police.
He told Barbados TODAY he did not understand why he was being treated so unfairly.
“I never got into any trouble when I was working there. They still decided to fire me and now they don’t want to pay me what is due. This cannot be right,” Skeete complained.
When a team from Barbados TODAY visited Copacabana and asked to speak to someone from the company, they were told that a manager by the name of Ms Hunte declined to comment.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb
