Pay demand

Former workers of Caribbean Aircraft Handling (CAH) have again staged a protest demanding monies owed to them by the company.

After management failed to fulfill a promise to give them vacation pay and other outstanding payments by Tuesday, some of the employees who were made redundant in early October picketed opposite the Grantley Adams International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, complaining that correspondence between them and the company had been practically non-existent for some time.

They said only a handful of workers had received emails about when they could expect payment to be delivered.

Former line crewman at CAH, Albert King, said they had worked too hard to be treated this way.

“We have made it happen for the company all of these years. We have worked short-staffed and short of equipment. I understand that there is a pandemic; it’s worldwide, but you have people here like me that suffering, with rent to pay, family to take care of, a young 18-month-old child, and can’t get no money,” he lamented.

“I cannot tell Barbados Light & Power that I am waiting on CAH, I can’t take leaves and rocks and go and pay them. My water bill… everything in notice to get cut off. If they know that they were waiting for funds from the Government, communicate to us in a decent and timely manner; don’t send me an email that has no substance in it.”

General Secretary of the United Progressive Party (UPP) Wayne Griffith, who was on hand for the demonstration, said the party has been supporting the disgruntled workers for the last few weeks, providing them with legal representation.

He said the workers have been more than patient with CAH and deserved answers about their money.

“They have been made a lot of promises. We have written letters from our legal team to the management of CAH and we want to see this matter resolved very quickly, because they have several debts and families to feed. They made a promise of the 17th which was [Tuesday], and nothing has materialised,” Griffith complained.