DLP spokesman on labour claims administration engaging in ‘unfair practices’ too

Government is being accused of engaging in the same unfair labour practices it is seeking to stamp out on this island.

Commenting on the ministerial statement presented last Friday by Minister of Labour Colin Jordan in Parliament, former union boss Walter Maloney pointed specifically to the comments regarding employers engaging in unfair practices including ‘the engagement of workers under the guise of subcontracting when the workers are really employees; not making deductions of contributions for the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) as required by law; (and) not paying the employer amounts to the National Insurance Scheme.’

In an interview with Barbados TODAY on Tuesday, Maloney claimed that the working situation of those who had been engaged in the government’s recently-concluded National Clean-Up programme is one example.

“The government hired 3 000 persons, and in some cases National Insurance was not paid for them and when some persons got injured on the job and they went to National Insurance looking to see if they would be entitled to sickness or injury benefits, they were told ‘no’, Maloney claimed.

“So in one breath the government cannot be saying to the private sector employers ‘this is what you need to do and we will be sending out inspectors from the NIS and the Labour Department to make certain you do this’ and in the next breath you are the business person who is doing it,” the former President of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) asserted.

Insisting that this should never happen, Maloney, the spokesperson for the Democratic Labour Party on labour matters, said that the government should be a model employer for the private sector to follow.

He also advised the government to check in with the NIS to ensure that those companies being considered to carry out work on its behalf have a good reputation before awarding contracts.

“If the government is hiring people to perform work on its behalf, it is in the government’s interest to make certain that these persons are bona fide, because if you do not do that, then the workers are the ones who will suffer,” he continued.

He accused Minister Jordan of dropping the ball on preventing these issues from surfacing in the labour market.

“As the minister, you should have been policing this ever since…It is your job to make certain that these things do not happen.” 

jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb