Security firms across the country are once again under scrutiny for allegedly attempting to deny employees the full benefit of the new minimum wage order by slashing their hours indiscriminately.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan revealed that his ministry has been investigating reports that some people who worked for as many as 60 hours a week prior to the order’s implementation have since been reduced to as little as 32.
Executive Director of the Barbados Employers’ Confederation (BEC) Sheena Mayers-Granville however argued that the issues raised are the manifestation of concerns expressed by businesses about the timing of the new wages.
Minister Jordan however declared that the practice would not be tolerated, as the intention of the Minimum Wage Order, 2021 is to ensure that workers take home a more decent wage on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis.
“I want to be very clear to security companies that we are not going to accept that they, because the rate has gone up, will reduce the hours of work of the employees,” Minister Jordan told Barbados TODAY.
“It is in the order and it is written, not to hamstring a business, because there may be some businesses that really have to make adjustments, because they may not be able to pass on the increases to their customers. However, we do not want a situation where in an effort simply to keep workers at the gross that they would have been at when they were being paid $7 or $7.50 or $8.00 (an hour). If that is the only consideration, then that is something that we cannot accept,” he further declared.
The order, which came into effect on April 1, increased the minimum wage from $6.25/hour to $8.50 across the board and $9.25 for security guards.
In response to the concerns from Minister Jordan, the BEC executive declared that businesses in general have been under tremendous economic pressure and have very little room to absorb additional costs.
Mayers-Granville also explained that security companies in particular are facing declining demand for their services whilst being asked to cover the increasing wage bill.
“What we are hearing from the industry and what we knew from the industry prior to April, is that there was very limited capacity to absorb additional costs,” she told Barbados TODAY.
The employers’ representative acknowledged that section 2 of the order confirms that working hours should not be generally affected by the increase, but added that each business would have to make decisions based on necessity.
While saying it is “highly unlikely” that employers are maliciously reducing hours, Mayers-Granville reiterated concerns about the impact of the increase on existing salary scales.
“People expect to have salary differentials. So a supervisor expects to earn more than line staff, for example, and when we make changes, then the parity is something that still has to be reviewed. I can’t speak to any specific situation, but that is something that HR professionals understand,” she argued.
Meanwhile, Jordan revealed that the labour department would carry out further investigations before labelling the issue as being at “problem status”.
“The Chief Labour Officer has the power to bring actions in quite a number of situations, but unfairness is something that we have to appeal to a number of people not to do. And in the case of adjusting hours just for the sake of doing it and not recognising that the situation that we find ourselves in is a situation where burdens have to be shared, that, we do not accept,” said Jordan.
“We want employers to treat workers like human beings. They have bills to pay, they need to live. You cannot expect them to come and work for you for next kin to nothing and believe that they are going to perform at the best of their ability and we are appealing to employing organisations to treat workers fairly,” the minister appealed.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)
