Community college tutors walk out, disputing hiring process

Scores of tutors at the Barbados Community College (BCC) staged industrial action on Tuesday, accusing management of bypassing long-serving staff in a controversial recruitment process that has sparked calls for urgent talks with their union.

Chants of “enough is enough” and “good work deserves promotion” echoed through the college compound in the morning as staff walked out of classrooms to protest what they described as an unfair hiring process.

Placards reading “follow the hiring process”, “great work deserves promotion not replacement”, and “the leader of the division of the year don’t get the job? How?” massed at the main gate from around 9 a.m. The protesting staff marched around the campus before returning to their starting point, insisting that years of frustration had reached a tipping point.

National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) General Secretary Richard Green told reporters the protest was sparked by the recruitment of a head of department.

Green said: “The NUPW was called by the staff of the Barbados Community College here this morning, a large number of the staff of the Community College particularly the teaching staff, to come to address a matter that they find very urgent… which is the recent recruitment of a head of a department in circumstances where the workers felt that persons who were already in the position and acting for a significant amount of time [and who] would have received numerous accolades and recognition for the work that they were doing in the department were overlooked, in a process that they strongly believe is unfair.”

He described the situation as “untenable”, adding: “Obviously in matters of industrial relations, when workers withdraw their services, the union would engage with the management of Barbados Community College to get to the table to work on a resolution, one that we think would be fair, equitable and in the best interest of the staff and in the best interest of the institution.”

NUPW President Kimberley Agard described the episode as “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“For a number of years, the NUPW has been in negotiations … discussing matters that would affect the staff of the BCC, not only the teaching staff, over a number of years,” she said.

“This particular instance is where we would have the filling of a post, and it wasn’t done based on the stipulations in the staff manual, where we would have someone who was acting in the post for over a year. However, this person would have been given awards, would have never had adverse reports. They would have applied for the job. They would have been interviewed. However, they were not given the post.”

Agard argued that interviewing external candidates alongside internal applicants created “bias” and insisted the staff had had enough.

“This is where the BCC staff has found it time to say enough is enough. It is time that we send a message to management that we are no longer taking the kind of treatment that has been meted out to these diligent and dedicated members of the BCC staff complement,” she declared.

The NUPW president said about 60 workers took part in the action, which would continue until management agreed to meet urgently with the union.

Later in the evening, Green reported that official correspondence had been sent to the college’s management and the union was awaiting a response.

The college was expected to meet with the NUPW on Wednesday in a bid to resolve the impasse, Principal Annette Alleyne said late Tuesday.

It received formal correspondence from the union earlier in the afternoon requesting the meeting, which has now been scheduled for 10:30 a.m.

A previous meeting had been set for Monday afternoon but BCC said the shop stewards opted not to attend.

Despite the protest, Principal Alleyne said the institution remained focused on minimising disruption to student learning. “Classes went ahead today despite the action taken by some staff members. And I expect that evening classes will not be affected,” she said. “I walked around the campus and got the sense that things were progressing as normal.”

She reiterated the college’s respect for staff concerns and their right to protest, while emphasising the administration’s openness to dialogue. “We welcome the opportunity to continue dialogue with our staff members on a way forward.”

Responding to additional concerns raised by staff regarding the college’s relationship with the National Transformation Initiative (NTI), Alleyne clarified that the partnership predates the current board chair, Dr Allyson Leacock, and was initiated as part of a broader institutional strategy. Dr Leacock also heads NTI.

“This was not forced on us by the chair of the board,” she said. “We partnered with the NTI since 2020, and signed an MOU to that effect in 2021. In fact, one of the KPIs in our work plan 2021–2022 set out a continued collaboration as one of our goals, and this has been ongoing in our work plans since then.”

She added that it was the BCC staff who originally drafted the proposal to implement NTI courses as electives, and that all work plans, including those referencing the NTI partnership, are routinely shared with staff.

Alleyne also rejected claims that the NUPW had to intervene in the interview process for the vacant post at the centre of the dispute. “That is inaccurate,” she said. “The NUPW raised concerns about the sequence in advertising the post, but at no time did they interrupt or intervene in the interview process.” (SZB)