Advocate staff unpaid for past five months

Employees of The Barbados Advocate have been going home empty-handed yet again.

The workers are reporting that after getting salaries up to the first half of March, they received no further pay up to last month.

The company has reportedly blamed its “inability” to make payments on problems collecting money from debtors.

“The drivers are the only people that are being paid out of everybody else because they know that the drivers are not going to carry out papers if they don’t get paid. It is not good enough and is unsatisfactory. Everybody needs money,” a well-placed source familiar with the situation told Barbados TODAY.

“It could be depressing some days,” an employee complained.

Regarding their future with The Barbados Advocate, which will be 128 years old next month, the employee added: “I am trying to do better, but until I can, I will have to [stay].”

This is the second consecutive year that staff at the Fontabelle, St Michael publication have worked for an extended period without pay.

In 2022, they had to wait eight months for their salaries. In late January this year, they received outstanding pay covering the May to December 2022 period.

Meanwhile, the company, which has been locked in a series of legal battles since the death of owner Sir Anthony Bryan in 2020, continues to publish physical and online editions of the newspaper.
(EJ)