NUPW official expresses concern about late salaries in public service

In this digital age public servants should be paid on time.

Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), Wayne Walrond, says he is happy that employees of the National Assistance Board (NAB) have been paid but remains disappointed in the continued late payment of salaries.

On Tuesday, Walrond revealed that several NAB workers who are paid bi-monthly had not received the second half of their salaries scheduled to be paid on January 31.

While acknowledging that the situation had since been rectified, Walrond told Barbados TODAY there was absolutely no reason why Government workers should not be paid on time every month.

Walrond said it was a recurring theme that was unacceptable.

“The NAB workers have been paid. The money has been deposited on to the bank, so the process of lodgments and workers being paid their salaries has been completed.

“But in a digital age it is difficult to accept that workers can’t be paid on time for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 months. It’s ridiculous. If you are talking about a modern public service you are looking for better service and a more efficient way of doing things, then certainly the issue of persons being compensated for their services has to be done on a timely basis. Paydays are sacred to people,” Walrond contended.

“People fashion their lives around their contractual paydays. We know it is not a perfect world and things can happen, but especially when it repeatedly happens you have to look at the systems of people processing the data on time to ensure people are not disadvantaged. People have commitments and sometimes people borrow money, they incur higher charges for credit, so it really is something that puts people in a difficult position.”

Walrond maintained that if there was an issue related to a lack of funds the least that could be done is to alert workers about the situation so that they could plan accordingly.
(RB)