Some employees of the National Assistance Board (NAB) are working without any “social safety net” and it has caught the attention of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW).
Deputy general secretary of the NUPW, Wayne Walrond is concerned that Government has not been paying national insurance benefits for the contract workers.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, the union official said the worrying situation had been brought to the attention of the union, which represents staff at the NAB.
He said what was especially concerning was the fact that the affected workers would not be permitted to pay their own national insurance benefits because of the way their contracts were constructed.
“We are aware that there are some workers hired as companions. They are not the regular workers, but they have been hired as companions on contract. It is our understanding that Government does not pay national insurance for these workers so they are therefore not covered by social security so they won’t be entitled to the social security benefits.
“Their status is one that although they work for NAB they are not treated fully as employees. They seem to be treated as contractors for services and this is something that obviously the union is concerned about, that the Government itself as an employer would be engaging persons under a contract for services and when you look at the work arrangement they don’t determine their hours of work, they don’t determine how the work is done, they report to the management structure of that organization…” Walrond explained.
“The difficulty we have is that when these same workers attempt to go to NIS [National Insurance Scheme] and try to pay their own social security and NIS investigates and interprets the contract and see that the contract is one of service they would not permit them to register as self-employed and that is the other difficulty. So even though an employer may refuse to treat you as an employee to escape from paying the social security and other employer obligations when you go to the NIS and they do the test…they don’t allow you to register as self-employed so therefore they’re not covered by any social safety net and that is an issue.”
While he refuted any suggestion that Government was treating the group of workers unfairly, Walrond called on the NAB to regularize their status.
He said the NUPW was also willing to help the workers if they required representation.
“The union understands their status is one of an independent contractor but when you analyze it there are actually employees and we would like to see them regularized as contract of service persons so that they would be covered by the social safety net. We think that’s something that needs to be looked at.
“If the workers approach us as a group then we can see how best we can lend to representation on this matter. Obviously we would love to sit down with this group of workers and collectively discuss how best to represent their situation,” Walrond said.
Efforts to reach Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Kirk Humphrey for comment proved unsuccessful up to press time. randybennett@barbadostoday.bb
