A pay increase for workers at the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) and better working conditions for employees at the School Meals Department, are just a few of the changes David Denny is promising to push for if he is elected Second Vice President of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) in the upcoming elections.
Denny, who on Monday visited the SSA, School Meals Department and cemetery workers in an effort to convince them to vote for him in the union’s July 15 elections, told Barbados TODAY he intended to defend the rights of Government workers by speaking out for them to get their due.
The candidate said security officers at SSA were calling for the same hazard allowance that is being given to watchmen who are also attached to the Authority, since they are doing the same job and working in the same type of conditions.
“We are saying that both the watchmen and security officers should receive hazard pay because the security officers also have to walk between the trucks and when the trucks are washed down all of the water passes by the hut that the security officers work from and they have to endure the very bad scent,” Denny said.
“The security officers’ argument is that all workers at Sanitation who work within that area should be given some form of hazard pay, not one and not the next, and I am in agreement with that and that is one of the issues I am going to challenge and fight for.
“In terms of the general staff at SSA, they feel very strongly that they should receive some form of pay upgrade…because their salaries are not to the level of other government workers that are at their level. Therefore, they feel that their salaries should be regraded so that they too can be recognized as workers who work to prevent medical issues from happening in the Barbadian society,” he added.
Denny said that while workers at the School Meals Department were also calling for salary increases, they also want their working conditions urgently reviewed. He insisted the workers’ concerns should be heard and addressed, considering the important role they play in feeding the nation’s children.
“School meals workers also play a major role in Barbados and should be treated differently. We need to treat our workers in Barbados how they should be treated. I must say that I am receiving a good response from workers as I go around and speak to them.
“And there are other serious issues and concerns they have but I don’t want to put them out there right now. But the workers were very open and ready to speak about the issues affecting them and they are making it clear that they want change. So, I am ready to represent the workers and I also have some proposals to make the lives of government workers better,” Denny added. (AH)
