PM issues warning against unreasonable demands

Prime Minister Mia Mottley today assured all healthcare frontline workers engaged in the COVID-19 fight that they will be granted hazard pay, but under certain conditions.

Mottley, who is also Minister of Finance, warned the workers during a press conference to update the country on the latest developments surrounding the coronavirus, that the Government would only be able to afford so much and no more.

In fact, the Prime Minister put the employees and unions on notice that any demands for hazard pay that exceeded what her administration could afford, would plunge the country further back into economic troubles.

Speaking in the wake of recent industrial action by some public sector nurses who insist they are entitled to hazard allowances just like their Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) counterparts, Mottley cautioned them that this approach was not the way to have their demands met especially where Government has not even received those proposals through the unions.

“The bottom line is – and the Government is sympathetic as you would have seen with respect to the workers at Harrison’s Point and the QEH with hazard pay – and I get it. But what I don’t get is persons sicking-out when we are still awaiting the union submitting the claim. The Government does not know what the claim is…and with respect, we can’t respond to something that has not been submitted,” the Prime Minister stated.

Mottley indicated Government’s willingness to meet around the bargaining table once the claim is made by the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) while at the same time expressing her dissatisfaction that the issue was being played out in the Press rather than in the boardroom.

“But I want to suggest to the NUPW and its members: let us make sure that we are not clouding this issue with the very difficult issue of the new appointment of a general secretary of the NUPW. For it seems as though this issue is being fought more in the media than in the boardrooms and offices of the public service where it ought to be fought,” she suggested.

While stoutly defending her Government’s record of addressing the terms and conditions of nurses and other medical personnel including the importation of additional nurses and the creation of categories for those who preferred to stay in the professional arm instead of going into administration, Mottley again issued a warning concerning the treasury’s ability to pay.

“I issue a warning. At some point, the minister of finance is going to have to step in…and at some point the minister of finance is going to ask you how we are going to pay for all of this…and at some point the minister of finance is going to have to make sure the balances are there, because what we will not do is topple this country over,” she declared.

Mottley went on to point out that there are large numbers of Barbadians who are not working and who are currently being supported by the Central Government at a time when revenue has significantly declined.

The PM also reminded Barbadians that the same tourists who some citizens do not want Government to compensate after spending their entire stay in quarantine awaiting test results, are the same ones who will help the administration pay its bills including hazard allowances.

“If we want to be able to increase the amounts that we give to persons for hazard pay, then we have to earn it from somewhere. It is the same pot. And the Minister of Finance has asked me to assure the country that it is the same pot. So if we have a difficulty in understanding that, then I want to be able to open the books,” she added.

“By the same token, I get it…and I want to give some level of hazard pay, but I am putting you on notice that the quantum can only be what the traffic can bear…and the traffic at this stage has had a 90 per cent reduction in tourism,” the country’s leader emphasized.

Mottley also said if those who have cannot help those who do not have, then the whole island, like COVID would be at risk.

“Those who have, must help carry those who do not have…and if we have to do it through Government, then Government is restricted to the same pot to help now those who don’t have, who had a year ago as well as those who have and are working, but want more. We will give more for the nature of the hazard, but we cannot give beyond what we do not have.”

“I don’t think any of us want to go back into a hole where we are incapable of coming out,” she stressed.

The Prime Minister said she has therefore suggested to Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic that there be a division between those who are COVID frontline workers such as those who take the swabs and others working in the field but who do not necessarily face the same level of risk such as police officers and health care providers.

“And they are others who face it, so don’t get me wrong. But by the same token, if we don‘t moderate, we’re going to find ourselves in trouble. And I simply say to those who want to take industrial action without putting the request on the table, that that is not how we do business in this country… and that once the request is legitimately put on the table, we will deal with,” Mottley promised.

She pledged that the Government, the Social Partnership and other entities will decide what would be done with regards to pay-outs and how they would affect the economy.

“We will tell you what we can afford and I will also tell you what we can’t afford…and then we will also remember that adults understand, unlike children, that choices have consequences. And we as a people, through the Social Partnership and elsewhere will determine what we want to do,” she added.

In response, the National Union of Public Workers said in a statement tonight that it is committed to securing a hazard pay for nurses and other health care workers in the public service similar to what was granted to categories of workers at the QEH who are exposed or potentially exposed to COVID-19 related cases in their line of duty.

The union said while the issue of hazard allowance needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency, there are a number of other concerns that must also be dealt with including safety and health issues in the workplace, completing arrangements for protective gear including the proper fitting of masks, stress and burnout suffered by healthcare practitioners, issuing of emergency passes, lack of resources needed for the delivery of proper healthcare and compensation for working public holidays and weekends.

“The repeated failure over the years to have their issues addressed has built up a deep sense of frustration. This has been compounded with the recent situation where workers in the health sector were excluded from the payment of a COVID-19 hazard which was proposed at the QEH,” the statement added.

The NUPW announced that the process of submitting proposals for the pay had started.

“This process will advance with the support and participation of the healthcare workers in upholding the protocol of suspending protest action until the matter is resolved within reasonable timelines,” said the NUPW.

Acting General Secretary Wayne Walrond admitted that while some healthcare employees called in sick today, the action did not disrupt the delivery of service in the sector.

When Barbados TODAY reached out to president of the Barbados Nurses’ Association Johanna Waterman she said that her organisation was sticking to its guns that all nurses should be paid a hazard allowance because they are all at risk.

But on the Prime Minister’s warning that the level of pay must be affordable, Waterman said the BNA was collaborating with the NUPW on that.

“In that regard we are collaborating. We have reached out to NUPW to collaborate with them. You know normally we operate as separate entities, but we consider this a matter that needs collaboration. So that is as much that I can say on that,” the nurse’s representative stated.

Waterman said the collaboration also involves working with NUPW to determine the provisions within the hazard pay.

She explained that while the BNA had been advocating for the allowances to be granted across-the-board, the highest risk was among nurses at the QEH who were managing known COVID-19 patients as well as the Accident and Emergency Department where the likely patients would present themselves.
(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)