BEST plan to get tourism workers back on the job

Under the proposed Barbados Economic and Sustainable Transformation (BEST) programme, the amount to be provided to tourism industry firms under the investment component is to be capped at $2 million.

This was revealed by Special Envoy to the Prime Minister Professor Avinash Persaud, who made it clear that the investment portion was not a loan.

The other component will be funding to help keep tourism industry workers employed.

“The investment component is capped at $2 million; the wage component is not capped. In addition, part of the funds both for wages and investment can be in the form of a matching grant up to a maximum of $500,000,” Persaud told Barbados TODAY as he revealed a bit more of the plan.

In the September 9 edition, Barbados TODAY inadvertently referred to the investment component of the plan as a loan.

However, in a clear-the-air explanation, Persaud noted: “There are no loans. It is giving firms the choice of funding their workforce coming back to work and green investments by issuing preference shares to Government.”

He said the preferred share would come with conditions.

“It must be paid back by the firm before owners can be paid any dividends or increased fees or sell assets. The US and UK Governments used these instruments successfully in the past. The point is to get workers back to work on a better salary than unemployment benefit and eliminate as an issue the elephant in the room, which is no one knows when tourism will be back if within the next six to 12 months,” he added.

He reiterated that Government was trying its best not to extend the period before someone could claim severance, but said if it had to be done it would “only be for a week or two” to give the employers and employees time to be re-engaged.

“If that means someone would be without unemployment benefit for a few weeks, we will extend that too. We don’t want anyone to fall through the cracks while trying to get people back to work,” Persaud explained. “Under the scheme the entitlement to severance is not lost, but frozen as long as the employee is re-engaged. The intention is that if they are laid-off again within 12 months, the weeks they were laid off before re-engagement will count towards their severance entitlement.”

While the key component of the plan is to re-engage the workers, there are several priority areas for investment – renewable energy, changing the value chain, greater integration of the agriculture and hotel sectors, water conservation, entertainment and culture, digitization and greater technology use, and settlement of outstanding statutory debt for small hotels. (MM)