With the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) facing the possibility of severance claims from tens of thousands of laid off workers in the coming weeks, one of Barbados’ main labour unions is warning that the severance fund could be “crippled”.
This assessment has come from General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Senator Toni Moore, who said some severed workers have not received unemployment benefits since May.
Though indicating that the challenges with the slow pace of unemployment benefits payments had nothing to do with financial challenges, Moore said it was up to officials of the NIS to say what exactly the limitations were.
The BWU, which was expected to meet with NIS officials between Thursday and Friday, has been having a series of townhall meetings with laid off workers to hear their concerns and suggestions.
Moore disclosed that some of those individuals have expressed an interest in having their unemployment benefits extended while others are “retorting with ‘what is the sense of extending unemployment benefits because we don’t get the benefit anyhow’”.
Moore said a number of individuals have already exhausted their unemployment benefit and given the unemployment situation they were now facing the possibility of not being able to “put food on their tables” with no access to an income, whether it in the form of an unemployment benefit, a wage or even a wage subsidy” as was suggested by the union back in June.
“Another real challenge that people are having is that even though they are entitled to unemployment benefit these benefits have not been forthcoming from the National Insurance Department,” Moore told reporters on Thursday during a media conference.
“There are workers who were off from the middle of March and had to wait until the middle of June for their first payment. So while we appreciate that COVID-19 has thrown everything in a tailspin and it has made what have been challenging operations even more challenging, and that includes the NIS, we have a real and immediate problem that needs to be fixed to ensure that workers can access the benefits where they’re entitled to it and where they are not entitled, that is a problem that also needs to be addressed,” said Moore.
She explained that some workers, especially in the tourism and hospitality sector, were laid off since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore have already exhausted their unemployment benefits and were now in a position to claim severance.
“This is a real challenge because if you no longer have access to unemployment benefit and if unemployment benefit is actually supposed to tide people over, our concern is that people are not being tided over. So while there is a preoccupation by many as to whether or not we should be treating to having workers receive their severance, for the BWU, that is not the only or the biggest problem we are facing,” she said.
“The BWU’s position is that we must address the sustainability challenge of our national insurance system, and that is a priority,” she warned.
She said with the situation facing companies, there was a likelihood of Government having to meet severance payments if it came down to that.
“For us to have a situation, even if it is COVID-19, that undermines that social security system to the extent that you in here, all of us might not have the opportunity to look forward to a pension, should be concerning to everybody,” she said.
“So that our role in the discussions is not simply to answer the immediate question of if people can get severance in a lump sum, but if they do, then how does that impact the social security system and how does that impact social security and social protection generally in Barbados,” added Moore.
The union boss said: “Where the NIS will be seriously challenged and in crisis in terms of finances is if the NIS has to honour the severance legislation and pay severance in a lumpsum.
“Suppose employers en masse said that they could not afford severance and the NIS would have to foot that bill and with the hoteliers saying their bill is about $300 million, that would cripple the NIS, but in terms of unemployment benefits paid up to date and the ability to honour unemployment liability the NIS can handle that,” she explained.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
