Portvale workers down tools over colleague’s dismissal

Over a dozen workers at Portvale Sugar Factory walked off the job on Monday in solidarity with a colleague who was dismissed on Friday after getting involved in a verbal altercation with a junior manager over unauthorised parking.

Barbados TODAY understands that the employee had parked his vehicle inside the compound, which is against the rules, because grass was being cut when he arrived at work last week, and he did not want the clippings to affect his vehicle. Management instructed him to move his car, which escalated into a shouting match, leading to his dismissal.

At the mill’s entrance, claiming representation of the workers, the general secretary of the Unity Workers Union, Caswell Franklyn, said the dismissal was unfair.

“He was dismissed in circumstances that were unfair, unreasonable, and stupid,” Franklyn said. “He was accused of using profane language to a junior maintenance manager. The manager made a complaint, but they did not give him the complaint. They asked him to respond to it, but he could not because he had not seen it.”

The union leader said management later gave him the complaint, which he presented on Sunday to the worker, who, up to that point, had not seen the contents.

Franklyn suggested the company had already decided to dismiss the worker before the hearing, contrary to law.

“The law requires that they give you the evidence they are going to use against you before the meeting starts. However, before the meeting started, they had in their hands a dismissal letter and the National Insurance green paper. That is the termination certificate, so they knew what they were planning to do.”

“They were having a show of trial and then finding him guilty before the fact, because these things were prepared in advance of the hearing. How do we know? Because before the hearing started, we saw them on the desk.” 

He continued: “You cannot tell me that you are going to have a fair hearing when you have the conclusion already in place. So we decided we could not defend him at that point because we were not familiar with the accusations against him. But they had their plans, so they said it had to be that day. They dismissed him on Friday.”

“They’re out here to support because let me tell you something, Friday him, Tuesday somebody else,” Franklyn said.

He also took issue with the company for not recognising the Unity Workers Union as the body representing the factory workers.

“Instead, they prefer to recognise the Barbados Workers’ Union. The Barbados Workers’ Union does not have a single member here. Not one person at this factory is Barbados Workers’ Union. Out of the 83 or 84 people, we are 55, but they prefer to call BWU. So when we wrote the factory, they called BWU and told them ‘come, we got your people’,” he said.

He said staff had been concerned about poor representation, especially during the harvest period when they work long hours without overtime pay.

“They have been working 56 hours, and these 56 hours before the crop, not being paid overtime,” he said.

Franklyn said he believes the worker was being victimised because of his choice of representation.

“This might be part of retaliation, too,” he added.

He said workers will continue their action one random day a week until the matter is resolved.

“What they have done is unfair, unreasonable, unjust, and inhumane,” Franklyn said.

When Barbados TODAY visited the factory’s administrative office, management was not available to comment. Other workers on the compound said they were told not to speak to the media.

Barbados TODAY also understands that all the workers removed their names from the attendance logs before leaving the compound.

louriannegraham@barbadostoday.bb