The top brass of the country’s largest public sector union has given its full support to the Barbados Optional Savings Scheme (BOSS) intended to divert a percentage of public servant salaries toward capital projects.
Moments after a National Union of Public Workers meeting on Friday evening, a high-level source confirmed that an overwhelming majority of the union’s national council voted to support the measures originally presented as ‘forced savings’ and later as a ‘national meeting turn’.
Of the approximately 50 members on the council, two abstained while the rest all supported the new proposal, Barbados TODAY was told. Next, NUPW shop stewards and scores of Government departments are to have their say at a meeting on Saturday.
The union meeting, which lasted three hours, attracted one of the largest turnouts in years and featured robust debate, before reaching an almost unanimous conclusion that public servants were now being asked to bear a reasonable burden.
Speaking to Barbados TODAY on condition of anonymity, the source said: “I think some people wanted to hear first-hand what was being presented and that is why they came out. I don’t think everyone understood and we had to fully explain, but a lot of questions were asked and the matter was fully ventilated.
“The persons voted in favour of the proposal, but at the end of the day, every worker in the public service has an option to buy bonds or not to buy bonds, so that even if we support it and encourage them to sign on, at the end of the day, they have a choice. It is not compulsory and you have a choice that is why it is called ‘optional’.”
The Mottley administration’s senior economic advisor Dr Kevin Greenidge on Thursday night explained that instead of demanding that public servants accept a percentage of their monthly salaries in bonds, workers would make the final decision on the financial instruments, which are “fully tradeable”.
Workers earning between $3,001 and $4,166 would have seven percent converted to bonds. Those earning between $4,167 and $8,333 would opt to sacrifice 12 per cent, while those earning over $8,334 are asked to contribute 17 per cent. Workers who make less than $3,000/month have been exempted from the plan.
Amid the economic fallout from the ongoing pandemic, the move has been touted as one which will prevent further public sector job cuts while maintaining economic activity.
“The idea is to push the capital programme in key areas like the upgrade of schools, roadworks, sanitation and environmental programmes that do not directly relate to tourism, so we could mop up some of the unemployment that we are generally seeing,” Dr Greenidge explained.
When asked what contingencies would be put in place to protect workers if the programme does not attract the desired amount of revenue, the source indicated that the union would be swift to respond.
The source told Barbados TODAY: “At the end of the day, every single worker has the option to buy bonds or to leave the bonds where they are and they have been guaranteed that they will receive their full salaries at the end of the day if they do not want to buy bonds.
“We have to go by that and if it does not happen, that is when the union will have to step in and represent its members and at the end of the day, we have to represent them. So if something goes wrong, and they don’t get what is promised, then we will have to deal with it.
“Just like any other agreement between the union and the employer, if one party reneges on that agreement, the unions will have to step in.”
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
