Pension deal . . . Mechanism agreed for CBC’s pensions payment

Following what has been described as a successful meeting with management of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) today, retrenched workers are hoping to get their pensions in the next two weeks.

Spokesman for the workers, former CBC news editor Peter Thorne told members of the media gathered at the Pine, St Michael offices that significant progress was made at the meeting which started around 11 a.m. and lasted for just over an hour. The former employees have been fighting for the payment of their pensions for close to a year. Over two dozen retrenched workers have charged that the payments were being unlawfully withheld from them.

Today Thorne said, “We believe that a mechanism has been arrived at whereby a solution has been in the offering either very near the end of this year or early in the New Year and that this painful matter for the ex CBC workers will thankfully be brought to a close.

“We first applied [for pensions] in February 2019 and this is near the end of the year and we still haven’t got our funds. But we believe that following the discussions this morning that a mechanism has been arrived at where thankfully this matter will be put to rest in just a matter of days. If this mechanism fails then all else will fail,” he said.

The spokesman said he was unable to give any details on the “mechanism” which was being put in place.

However, while thanking Chairman of the CBC Board David Leacock, and Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Public Affairs Senator Lucille Moe for their efforts in working to resolve the matter, Thorne said he believed that both parties would be satisfied with the solution.

“The ex-workers are happy with it in terms of the delegation and there was a delegation of 12 representing the workers. CBC’s management is happy with it; it will be put in writing and we believe that there will be further meetings and after that a solution will be found whereby the pension fund won’t be placed in jeopardy, an injection will have to come, but the workers will get their just due after hard deliberations,” he said.

One ex-worker who attended today’s meeting said she was hoping that the resolution came before yearend to bring a smile to the faces of those retrenched workers who qualified for pension, but have been finding it difficult to cope without it.

“For some workers it has been a long and painful year and they are going into year two. So we do not want it to be one like BIDC [Barbados Investment and Development Corporation] where it is five years going in and there is no income for those workers.

“So if this should come to fruition we would be happy and everyone should be smiling by December 31,” the retrenched worker said.

About 103 workers were severed from CBC on December 1, 2018 as part of Government’s debt restructuring programme.

In February 2019, 30 retrenched workers applied for their pensions and gratuities which are paid by the CBC to the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL) which is the executing agency.
anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb