NUPW threatens protest, legal challenge over sacking of BCC worker

The National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) is considering taking the Barbados Community College (BCC)  before the Employment Rights Tribunal alleging the unfair dismissal of a worker, Acting General Secretary Wayne Walrond said Tuesday night.

The sacking of a maid/cleaner, whose last day on the job is Wednesday, is without justification and provides the union with a solid claim for unfair dismissal, Walrond told Barbados TODAY.

He said: “Under the Employment Rights Act if you work past a year, you are confirmed in your post. She was not on probation. I did not hear any form of justification for displacing the lady…and this is really excellent grounds for unfair dismissal…excellent grounds for her to file a claim for unfair dismissal against the BCC. That’s a route we are prepared to go.”

The NUPW leader, who met Monday with the college’s management to discuss the matter, said the union is demanding the maid’s reinstatement and her immediate appointment to the post in which she had been functioning “without complaint” for the past four years.

Denouncing the BCC management’s action as scandalous, heinous and heartless against a “vulnerable worker” especially in these challenging times, the union leader said her colleagues will be protesting the firing on Wednesday.

While Walrond declined to be specific about the form of protest, Barbados TODAY has learned that the ancillary staff will be on a “go-slow”.

The union leader said what is most disturbing is that the management has interviewed others for the job the woman had been doing for four years.

Walrond said: “They seemed to have already taken the post that she was in and given it to someone else, therefore there is no post. There were a set of maids that were interviewed recently.

“What they did, they advertised it as custodian. It is just another title for ancillary worker or maid/cleaner. She applied and they said she was unsuccessful.

“They say she was unsuccessful in an interview which measured her performance and stewardship for the past four years by an interview?”

The NUPW General Secretary reasoned that the most effective way to measure positions such as maids is by performance not by an interview.

He also disclosed that the union rejected a temporary offer given to the employee because it is not workable.

Walrond told Barbados TODAY: “Really, to me, it is just delay tactics because it is not pragmatic. There is some promise of some temporary arrangement as a buffer to the stance that the union has taken in her defence.

“What employers can do is if a person is on probation, you assess them and if they are not up to scratch the employer then has reasonable grounds to let them go. But you cannot tell me that after four years, I am not hearing of any justification and you are going to tell me you are going to use an interview to terminate somebody. An interview to say what?

“Maid and cleaning services are a support services operation which really rely on you just carrying out your duties in a satisfactory manner. That is what it requires. This lady has been loyal to the institution for four years. What dialogue or interview you are going to tell me that could measure the lady’s performance better than the actual four years that she had been functioning in the post?”

When Barbados TODAY reached out to BCC Principal Annette Alleyne, she declined to comment, saying all queries and statements must be handled by the board chairman or secretary and promised she would have either of them respond.

There was no word from those officials up to the time of publication.

(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)