Congress complains to ILO again over exclusion from delegation

Having been overlooked by Government for yet another International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference, the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) has made yet another formal complaint to the international body.

The action was taken following Government’s decision not to invite CTUSAB to attend the ILO’s labour conference which was held in Geneva, Switzerland from May 27 to June 11.

In its most recent June newsletter, CTUSAB said it had escalated a previous complaint to the ILO in light of Government’s continued disrespect towards that organisation.

“As has been the case in previous years, CTUSAB was not notified or provided any information on the upcoming conference by the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and the Third Sector. Consistent with this, CTUSAB was not invited to be a member of the Government’s delegation to the conference,” the umbrella body charged.

“CTUSAB last attended the ILC in the year 2014. In July, 2021, CTUSAB submitted a letter of complaint to the Freedom of Association Committee of the ILO, regarding its attendance to the International Labour Conference. In the absence of a response, CTUSAB has now directed its complaint to the ILC Credentials Committee: 110th Session.”

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, CTUSAB’s general secretary Dennis DePeiza said he was bewildered by Government’s actions.

“You would expect that a congress which is the national centre of a country would be respected for its position which it has within the labour movement because it would be at the hierarchy and as a social partner, being one of the three central figures in the social partnership, that it would be given that type of respect,” DePeiza said.

“If that is to be consistent with the document that we follow at the social compact then you would have to pose the question to Government as to why it behaves in a contrary fashion.”

In its complaint, CTUSAB stated, “As a National Trade Union Centre and a member of the Social Partnership of Barbados, the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados, draws the attention of the governing body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), to its growing concern of the continual exclusion of the body, as a member of Barbados’ delegation to attend the annual International Labour Conference.

“This constitutes a grievance for the Congress, inasmuch that it holds the expectation that as the National Trade Union Centre and a member of the tripartite Social Partnership of Barbados, it ought to be invited by the Government of Barbados to nominate the workers’ delegate and/or advisor, to attend the annual International Labour Organisation.”

In the newsletter, CTUSAB also announced that the posts of president and general secretary will be up for election at the upcoming 14th Biennial Delegates’ Conference, slated for September 22, 2022.

When asked if he would be seeking re-election, DePeiza said he would leave that decision to the body’s membership.

“It is something that will depend on the membership and the membership will determine if I will continue. At the same time, I am almost always willing to groom someone else, to have someone else take over the leadership of the congress because the congress is not an organisation that will remain stagnant. It has to grow and it has to have persons who are prepared and able to carry on the work that has been started some 25, 26 years ago,” he said.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb