Government outlines plans for concerned clean-up workers

By Shamar Blunt

The contracts of nearly 2 000 workers who found employment as part of a National Clean-up Programme almost two years ago will come to an end on March 31 and the news has left many of them worried about how they will support themselves and their families.

Despite assurances from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Santia Bradshaw that a plan is in place that could help them find future work, some have expressed concern they may remain among the unemployed.

The workers were initially employed to assist with cleaning up the ash that blanketed the country following eruptions at the La Soufriere volcano in neighbouring St Vincent and the Grenadines in April 2021. 

Bradshaw said the workers will now have the opportunity to enhance their skills as the Government seeks to prepare a cadre of artisans for anticipated jobs in the housing construction market.

She made the disclosure to the media following hours of talks between ministry officials and the workers at the Wildey Gymnasium about the upcoming end of a programme that has provided them with steady employment for close to two years.

“We would have indicated several months ago that the programme, because it was a contract worker programme, would come to an end at some point and we have hinted at that for some time. We have made a decision at Cabinet that we would extend the programme until the 31st of March,” she said, thanking the workers for their outstanding work, first during the ash clean-up and then in the roadways beautification drive.

Some of the just under 2000 workers who attended Thursday’s meeting.

The clean-up initiative cost the Government an estimated $54 million annually between the Ministry of Transport, Works and Water Resources and the Ministry of the Environment.

Minister Bradshaw sought to assure the workers they would not be left out in the cold.

“We are not just ending the programme, because we recognise that these are all people who have made a turnaround, in many cases, in their lives. They had the opportunity to work and they have given significant value to the country in terms of the work and the efforts that they have made.

“….For the very first time, I believe, in the history of Barbados we have decided to implement a transition programme that will allow a number of these individuals the opportunity to enter into a skills training programme at the tertiary institutions,” she explained. 

Dana Williams

The Barbados Vocational Training Board (BVTB) and the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI) are to be involved in the transition programme, along with other private sector entities in the agriculture and construction sectors who have all reportedly shown interest in taking on some of the workers.

Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland indicated that a large number of them would have the opportunity to transition into construction as the Government’s plan to provide 10 000 homes across the island gains momentum.

He acknowledged that there is a shortage of local artisans at a time when there are several large and smaller-scale projects on the horizon. 

The Housing Minister said the Government plans to train a number of workers over the next 12 months.

“We want to ensure that within a year’s time, we can boast as a government that we would have trained over 1 500 men and women to provide the necessary skills, and that void that we have with respect to artisans in this country – to allow us to achieve the 10 000 housing target as a minimum – would be a thing of the past,” he said.

However, many of the workers questioned their next move, admitting uncertainty about the transition training programme. 

They also said being selected for a job could be another hurdle to cross.

Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance, Dwight Sutherland

One such worker, David Griffith, who was with the cleaning programme from its inception, told the media that the change in his employment situation will be a massive financial blow to him and his family.

“This is a great blow; I have my wife who is an acute diabetic. I am the breadwinner in the house. When we get the $889, as they are giving us now, it goes in the supermarket, it goes in other [ways] of supporting myself instead of going out there and committing crime,” he said.

“A lot of people were expecting this but a lot of people cannot afford [it]. Unemployment for all of these youths right now is a real big thing, because we don’t know after the 31st how long it will take them to call us for the programmes, and after getting the skill, getting hired for the skill.”

The emotional 54-year-old worker explained that he had also previously applied to a skills training programme but received no positive responses. As a result of that experience, Griffith has no confidence in the proposed plan to retrain the clean-up workers in various areas. 

“I filled out the papers for skills training ever since and they ain’t call me up till now. What tells me that they will call me by March 31st?… What am I going to do after March 31st? I got an amputee home to support. What am I going to do?” he questioned.

Dana Williams, who was self-employed before joining the programme, said its end will prove to be a difficult time for some of the workers.

“For some of us who do not have a training mindset, it’s going to be a difficult situation. I thought it would have been going for a longer period, but I guess it is what it is,” she said.

Williams stressed that the programme had been beneficial for the workers.

“It helped in different ways – in terms of sending school children, in terms of different things, it honestly did help,” she said.

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb