COVID monitors upset at months-long delay in payment of thousands

Industrial relations issues are once again plaguing the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit and causing tremendous frustration among scores of Community Liaison Officers charged with enforcing the country’s pandemic protocols.

Frustrated workers told Barbados TODAY they are yet to receive thousands of dollars in travel allowances and hazard pay accumulated over the course of the year.

Making matters worse is an apparent decision to deduct payments from persons who fall ill, even in circumstances where their illness was COVID-19.

“We are told that the contracts are supposed to be renewed every year and within that first year that you are working, if you are sick, you are not going to get any NIS, even if you have COVID,” said one worker.

“There were even some whose full salaries were paid and the ministry took back out the salary because they mistakenly paid them during times that they were home with COVID and they took back the money. Employers were told that if anybody contracts COVID they are not supposed to deduct persons’ salaries, but they are doing it,” the source added.

Sources within the department said the matters reached boiling point recently when they were informed via word-of-mouth that travel allowances accumulated from January to June would not be paid. A source explained that the issue is particularly vexing because they are asked to drive their personal vehicles across the length and breadth of the country to monitor businesses and citizens.

“It was promised and it is supposed to be paid every month, but this is months now that workers have not been given their travel although they tell you to submit it on the first day of the month,” one worker told Barbados TODAY.

“You are not getting your hazard pay and you can’t hear a word from Mr Ronald Chapman… and there’s nobody to take your queries to when you want to find out what is happening. We also realised we have been paying in NIS working a whole year and when we checked the NIS office, nothing has been paid in to date,” the source added.

Another worker said that high-ranking Ministry of Health officers often refer to specific terms and conditions in their contracts, which they never received. As a result, they are “shooting in the dark” when filing complaints about the conditions.

Numerous efforts to reach the Director of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit Ronald Chapman on Wednesday and Thursday were unsuccessful.

However, the Acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Anton Best explained that the Permanent Secretary is in the process of making changes to the terms and conditions of the workers.

“That is really the domain of the Permanent Secretary who deals with HR matters,” Dr Best told Barbados TODAY.

“I really don’t know the details and I can’t respond to much more than to tell you that the Permanent Secretary is dealing with some of the issues,” the senior public health doctor added.

In the meantime, this newspaper also received information from an official COVID-19 Monitoring Unit group chat where workers voiced numerous concerns, but received no response from administrators.

“My travels have been submitted every single month on time. August, September and October. We are in the month of November and still can’t get a cent. ,” said one upset worker.

“And when you go into the accounts [department], all you get is a lot of run around stories like you’re a little child,” the employee added.

Another worker pleaded with colleagues to stop grumbling silently among themselves and instead make their grievances known.

“All officers put their lives and family at risk and while doing this, a number came down with COVID and by extension made their family and loved ones sick as well. No hazard pay,” the worker complained.

“The doctors and nurses get full gear down to PPE and are well covered while seeing negative or positive persons because they are unsure of the status, and they get hazard pay. Meanwhile, officers (monitoring unit) are on the outside among positive and negative people also, not sure of persons’ status and are given a few masks and a sanitiser… and no hazard pay.

“I guess officers are nobody,” the worker concluded.

In March, this newspaper reported on the frustration among officers of the unit over non-payment of salaries for nearly four months. In fact, Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic declared that there was no excuse for the blunder on the part of administrative officials in his ministry as the unit’s officers threatened to “down their tools”.

“It is a situation which we really do not like and we are going to do everything possible to ensure that it does not happen again because people must be paid once they have worked,” Bostic declared at the time.

“People must be paid and paid on time, so we are not going to tolerate any excuses for that not happening,” the health minister added.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb