No deal yet in BICO dispute

The dispute over increased electricity fees charged to independent ice cream mobile retail salespersons contracted by BICO remained unresolved on Tuesday, following a promised meeting with management.
Spokesman for the mobile retailers David McClean said after the meeting, that they would not be driving any of the vehicles from which the ice cream is sold and will continue to leave them parked at the company on the Harbour Industrial Estate until a settlement is reached.
He said the workers had placed a number of possible compromises on the table which they believed could resolve the issue relating to the hike in charges which came into effect on Monday.
He said one of the key proposals put to management was for a delay in implementation of the increased fees until May 1.
“We have come to the point where we have asked BICO not to start these charges from the 17th which was yesterday, pending a review. We would have someone from the Barbados Light & Power Company come and do an assessment on how BICO would have arrived at these charges. BICO is actually saying they went to TMR [Sales and Service] to do this evaluation, and we were saying no,” McClean told Barbados TODAY.
“If the Barbados Light & Power is the entity that charges for electricity…I believe what you are doing is wrong…What you all need to do, is to bring someone from the BLPC to do the same thing that TMR is doing and then we may be able to sit down and discuss what we are discussing here now.”
The spokesman disclosed that Executive Chairman Edwin Thirlwell agreed to the assessment being done by the BL&P, but insisted that the mobilers pay for it.
He said he didn’t have a problem with that, and was in the process of securing a representative from BLPC who should be available to do the evaluation in a couple of days.
McClean reported, though, that Thirlwell continued to insist that the new rates must be paid, a position he said the mobilers rejected.
“They are telling me that anyone that plugs in their vehicle will be billed at the new increased rate. They also said we can pay the rate we are accustomed to paying, but at the end of the two weeks when we get the results of the evaluation and it is found that we still fall short, we have to pay this money up front,” he said.
“We ain’t paying this fee to you. We are going to be off the road until we have this review done. Bear in mind that I am hearing that BICO may be planning on bringing in their own electric vans,” he disclosed.
McClean also revealed that while the executive chairman accepted a proposal from them to install meters on the vehicles to provide a more credible measurement of electricity used, he informed them it would not be done in the near future.
When contacted, all Thirlwell would say is that the two sides were in the process of reaching a compromise.
“No news, because we had the meeting this morning. We are hoping to reach a compromise, but we haven’t reached it yet. We have agreed a course of action which is going to be done, but we all wouldn’t comment any further,” he told Barbados TODAY.
Meanwhile, one of the mobilers, who attended today’s meeting but asked not be identified, said that over the past few months with all the drastic changes including facing the COVID pandemic, BICO ice cream had become so expensive to buy and sell back making it challenging for the salesperson to see a profit.
“Throughout these challenging months, BICO had increased the energy bill more than 200 per cent within the last year. When the energy bill was first introduced the BICO vehicles were paying $16.40 a month. In 2022, Barbados Light & Power raised their electricity fees and we were charged without negotiations, $35.95 for the small trucks and $58.70 for the big trucks,” the worker declared.
“In February 2023, a warning letter was issued to every BICO mobiler. It stated that each owner had breached the contract by not working a minimum of six days through the year. Each person was given 14 days to rectify the situation. The 14 days were not up as yet,” the independent contractor suggested.
(EJ)