Fed up

Frustrated BPWCCUL staffers walk off the job to meet with union on grievances Management of the Barbados Public Workers’ Cooperative Credit Union Limited (BPWCCUL) will be meeting with the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) on Saturday in an attempt to resolve issues that prompted employees to walk off the job on Friday morning. More than 100 employees from the BPWCCUL Group gathered at the BWU headquarters, Solidarity House, to discuss longstanding concerns about working conditions, compensation, promotion, and job evaluations, among others. Group CEO of the BPWCCUL Glyne disclosed in a statement late Friday that this disrupted services at the various companies in the Group. Only the credit union’s Belmont and Black Rock branches remained open to serve customers while CAPITA Financial Services and its subsidiary Capita Insurance Brokers Inc. operated at reduced levels. “Some staff felt it would be necessary to discuss with the Barbados Workers’ Union representatives on issues pertaining to salary increases, job evaluation, job assessments, bonuses and promotions,” he said in explaining the disruption. Harrison said only the Bridgetown office of the credit union would be open on Saturday, but expectations were that all branches would resume business on Monday as management of the BPWCCUL will be meeting with the union on Saturday afternoon. Earlier, speaking to the media at Solidarity House where the workers met, BWU Deputy General Secretary Dwaine Paul said Friday’s meeting was held to try to de-escalate the situation after workers were dissatisfied with how management had been handling their grievances. “We have issues related to promotion, we have issues related to pay, we have issues related to treatment, we have issues relating to conditions. We have outstanding issues, including auto-grading, we have outstanding job evaluation and we need to have these matters checked off. “We thought we had broken the back of the matter in discussions over the last few weeks, relating to the job evaluation, relating to performance improvement assessments and…. what we call compensatory share pay. We were hopeful that we were making progress on that. Unfortunately, coming out of meetings held yesterday [Thursday] and other meetings held earlier, the staff members were of the view that they were still very much dissatisfied and we were not moving in the right direction, and they would have had their discussions and decided that they needed to collectively seek answers on the matter,” Paul said. Harrison said in his statement that the BPWCCUL recognised the importance of open and honest communication but also appreciated that “in an organisation as dynamic as ours, it is inevitable that there will be varying opinions and differing expectations”. “We are actively looking to resolve all of the issues identified but ask all stakeholders to understand that these measures take time to be resolved,” he added. “At BPWCCUL, our employees are the backbone of our organisation and their concerns matter to us. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect, fairness and collaboration and we value the contribution of every team member.” Harrison said the credit union remained “steadfast in our commitment to providing exceptional service, supporting our employees and fostering an inclusive and rewarding workplace environment and thank all affected persons for working with us through this unexpected issue”. Meanwhile, Paul said the timing of the protest, coming on the same day of the State funeral of former Prime Minister of Barbados Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, was not intended to be disrespectful. (BT)]]>