Hard times for UWI drivers

Longtime shuttle operators at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus have been driven to their wits’ end as they contend with more than a year on the breadline with no definitive word on the status of their employment.

While promising to reinstate the drivers at the earliest opportunity, the university’s management is however contending that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for their services has subsided.

On condition of anonymity, a spokesman for the group revealed that the seven middle-aged men who service the shuttles received their paycheque from the institution on May 19th last year, shortly after the indefinite cancellation of face-to-face lectures and tutorials.

Since then, the contract workers, some of whom have been working at the UWI for as many as 15 years, have been relying on sporadic benefits from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS), which they say have now dried up.

“You can only get so much funds out of the NIS and with everything that has been going on and so many people drawing out of the NIS, it has been tough,” the spokesman told Barbados TODAY.

Making matters worse is the fact that most of the men, who are attached to the Office of Student Services (OSS) are fathers with young children and from “very hard circumstances”.

“So it’s not that we have a large bank account. We have been living paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet for quite some time and the thing about it is that although you may be looking for employment someplace else, there is not that much out there that you can get. Nobody wants you when you reach a certain age and all of us are pretty much in our forties and up,” the source contended.

He added: “Yesterday when I called one of the drivers, he said ‘if this phone didn’t just ring, I have a rope here hanging over my rafter, I was now putting it over my neck’. His water is off, his light is off, the cupboard is empty, the people came back to repossess. What exactly is a fellow to do in a day like today? Why should a grown man have to suffer like this when he has given you more than a decade of his life? You mean to tell me that they cannot find it anywhere on the books to send five hundred dollars to help this man pay off his bills?”

Based on the terms of their arrangement, the drivers are temporarily laid off during the university’s vacation period and rely on NIS benefits to get by. Based on the current situation, some are contending that based on their years’ of service to the institution, they ought to have been appointed in the same way as other temporary and part-time workers.   

“There was the option of giving the workers a stipend and when we come back to work we rebate slowly. They keep saying that they will consider and get back to us but this is in excess of six months since any word or anything from them.”   

When contacted, Cave Hill’s Communications Officer Chelston Lovell challenged the notion that the operators had not received word from their employer, contending that as recently as March, they met with the campus’ Human Resources department. During the meeting, Lovell said the drivers were again informed that with virtual classes being the order of the day, the demand for their services was extremely low.

“It should be noted that the drivers are employed on a contractual basis and therefore work during semesters one and two only. They are not employed during the summer semester,” said Lovell.

“In March, discussions focused on re-engaging their services over a four-week period where they would each be engaged for two weeks towards the end of semester two. This was aimed, in part, to facilitate students accessing the libraries and engaging in other study-related activities.

The majority of drivers agreed to participate in this arrangement which ended in May following exams,” the Communications Officer said in a statement.

Lovell acknowledged that during the “cordial” discussions, drivers inquired about the possibility of being employed “elsewhere” on campus, including in the summer period.

“They were advised that given the current economic environment such employment could not be guaranteed. It was noted that when a demand for their services resumes and the campus is in a position to re-engage them, this would be done,” the statement concluded.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)