Government has hit back at the island’s umbrella trade union body which accused the administration of breaching the established structures and form of the Social Partnership.
In a strongly-worded statement issued last week Thursday, General Secretary of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations (CTUSAB) Dennis De Peiza said his organisation was concerned that since 2019, there has been a deviation from the structure and form of the social partnership which is chaired by Prime Minister Mia Mottley
But in an equally robust response on Friday, Minister of Labour, Social Partnership Relations and the Third Sector Colin Jordan described as untrue and uncharitable any claim that the tripartite body was being placed on the backburner.
“I am not going to accept anybody saying that the Social Partnership is being relegated. It is not. It is untrue to say that…untrue and uncharitable,” Minister Jordan told Barbados TODAY. He also defended his Government against De Peiza’s accusation that the Mottley administration appeared to have discarded the established protocols for the convening of monthly meetings of the sub-committees and its “failure” to observe the procedures and processes for gatherings of the full Social Partnership
“We have not been sitting down on our hands. December had been holiday period, we went into an election, we went straight into Estimates, we went straight into Budget. Budget was at the end of March. We’re not even in double digits yet for April; and the Prime Minister has already signalled, that she intends to have a meeting in April,” Jordan contended. He said he is perturbed that after the PM has indicated she will summon a meeting that somebody would now say, there has been no meeting.
“It is almost as though the Prime Minister’s mentioning of it, triggers that there hasn’t been one. Her mentioning of it is not in response to anybody. Her mentioning of it is that we are now at the stage where we can sit down and spend some time talking through,” Jordan pointed out.
“We had been doing the people’s business, but not ignoring the Social Partnership. Everybody in Barbados knows what happened between the day the election was called..and today…the PM also having to do some travelling that everybody knows about; she doesn’t hide, she doesn’t sneak out of the country. So a lot of stuff has been happening.
Jordan also argued that the Ministry of Health has been dealing with the more recent surge in COVID-19 cases linked to the new sub-variant of the Omicron virus. The CTUSAB leader had noted that representatives of the Government and an equal number for employers and the umbrella body are to meet for the purpose of consulting and exchanging information that relates to the betterment of the industrial relations climate in Barbados.
“This apparently seems to have been discarded by the Government of the day. CTUSAB firmly believes that this attempt to alter the long-established form of the partnership must be challenged since it denies the opportunity for the partners to meet and address industrial relations,” De Peiza contended.
“The congress is steadfast in its belief that the process and procedures for the convening of meetings of the full social partnership under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, must be observed,” he said. emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
