PM bids to reward COVID-19 frontline workers

Barbadians from all walks of life along with some non-nationals will next month receive national awards plus a one-time financial grant as a reward for bravery on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Mia Mottley disclosed on Tuesday.

Acknowledging the fight against the disease is far from over, Mottley told fellow legislators that many went above and beyond the call to duty and that it is Government’s judgement that rather than wait for a special occasion like Heroes’ Day, these workers need “the extra wind in your sail”.

In tabling two pieces of legislation, the Barbados Humanitarian Service Award Bill and the Gold Award of Achievement (Amendment) Bill, Mottley said that an added feature will be a cash payment accompanying each award.

The PM said: “We would love to be able to say that we can give everybody something and everything… on an ongoing basis but we can’t afford it.

“But what we will do – and we will sit down with the [trade] unions and discuss it as has already started in some instances – is to look at a one-off ex gratia payment for those who had to work on the frontline either intensely, or on the second layer with respect to the level of risk exposed.”

She said this payment must be within what “the country can afford in addition to the medals”.

She said that the Barbados Humanitarian Service Award is intended to be re-used in event of other humanitarian services or people facing up to similar challenges.

The Gold Medal of Achievement Act is being amended because it has a limitation that allowed the issue of only one medal per occasion but when passed will enable the award of multiple medals for any one event.

Mottley heaped praise on the outstanding service of shop assistants, tourism workers, medical personnel, community volunteers, government employees and even her Cabinet colleagues.

Non-nationals such as the Cuban brigade of nurses also came in for the Prime Minister’s bouquets.

She declared: “It is significant to me that those persons who went beyond the call of duty, particularly in those early months did not stop and ask ‘I gon get a reward, an honour, extra pay?’. No.

“What they did was to rise to the occasion conscious that in rising to the occasion they were defending the people of this nation.”

“The people of this nation owe a significant debt of gratitude to those who stepped forward, particularly in those darkest of months, to do the job but in doing their job to keep this country safe and stable as we went through that period.

“It requires extraordinary mettle and courage to keep your head above water, to keep hope alive and to continue to contain what will be regarded as the greatest threat to global stability in the 21st Century in the form of this pandemic.” (GA)