Bosses, workers should agree on wage cuts

The island’s acting Chief Labour Officer says the current employment situation is so tenuous that she advises employers and employees to cooperate so that both sides can make it through the current crisis.

Responding to a question from a caller last night on CBC TV8’s The People’s Business regarding decisions by some employers to cut salaries, Claudette Hope-Greenidge said such actions should involve a discussion with employees and an agreement between the parties.

However, she conceded that developments surrounding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) had occurred rapidly, and so the situation called for a level of compromise on both sides to determine the best approach for each individual business.

Hope-Greenidge, who succeeded recently retired chief labour officer Victor Felix, said many decisions were being taken to simply keep businesses going. “Employers want to keep their businesses afloat, while employees want to retain their employment,” she pointed out, adding that cooperation is going to be the key to making it through the unprecedented period of business closures and job losses.

The acting Chief Labour Officer, however, urged employers to follow the legal framework, urging that if employees agreed to a pay cut during a specific period, employers should act in good faith to restore salaries after the period of adjustment.

Also speaking during the programme was Shena Mayers, executive director of the Barbados Employers’ Confederation (BEC), who acknowledged that many Barbadians had been rendered jobless as a result of the pandemic. However, she said there were thousands who were working from their homes and many others who were still required to go work including supermarket workers, police officers, nurses, paramedics, cleaners and support staff working on the frontline.

She said that consideration should be given to those workers and ensuring their protection as they faced possible exposure to COVID-19 each time they turned up for work.

Registered nurse Mary Thompson, who also joined the discussion said as far as she was aware, there were no challenges with the provision of personal protective equipment for frontline healthcare workers. However, Thompson expressed concern about the public’s improper use of masks and gloves. She said many people were incorrectly removing and putting on their masks, while others were contributing to the spread of germs and possibly the virus due to the way they were using disposable gloves.