CTUSAB calls for urgent talks amid pending CO Williams layoffs

The Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) has called for urgent national talks after reports that construction firm CO Williams is to begin laying off workers, raising fresh concerns about contradictions in the country’s labour market during a period of reported skills shortages.

The company is expected to make some of its workers redundant from as early as Friday, citing declining competitiveness and sustained operational challenges. The move has drawn a strong response from the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), which is demanding evidence to justify the cuts.

The 66-year-old company, which traces its origins to 1960, when late founder Charles Williams began a small earthmoving business, notified “all employees” in an internal memo dated June 5 of job losses within days.

Speaking on the developing situation with Barbados TODAY, CTUSAB President Ryan Phillips highlighted a growing and deeply perplexing contradiction within the domestic labour market.

He noted that while a substantial number of young Barbadians are actively struggling to secure employment, key economic sectors are simultaneously reporting critical labour shortages.

“CTUSAB has not ignored the fact that we are seeing this trend popping up,” Phillips said. “In fact, last week in our news conference, we would have mentioned the fact that you know we’ve been seeing a number of young people indicating that they cannot get work. We’ve also recognised that there are a number of companies, actually, who are saying equally, you know, that there’s a shortage, especially in the hotel industry, especially in the construction industry.”

Phillips argued that the current situation exposes a fundamental disconnect that must be addressed swiftly by policymakers, trade unions and private sector leaders alike before the situation deteriorates further.

“What is alarming is what Barbados have now learned, that CO Williams actually is going through a phase now where they have to lay off workers, and that to me is saying clearly that something is not adding up,” the CTUSAB president remarked.

“I think that it is that we, is it that we have an issue in terms of not sharing the work equally? For those hotel sectors and other industries who are saying that they have a shortage of workers, is it that we are not training persons in a particular field to have to take up these jobs?”

Phillips warned that Barbados can ill afford to tolerate domestic labour instability or ignore early warning signs amid global economic pressures. He emphasised that the fallout from international economic shifts will inevitably reach Barbadian shores, making the protection of current jobs and the strategic retraining of the local workforce paramount to national stability.

“And also we need to have a national dialogue on this particular thing because now is the time that Barbados cannot afford to be having these kinds of issues, especially on the heels of what is happening externally in terms of the international world,” Phillips urged.

“You know, and soon from now we are going to feel that impact, you know, and if workers are being laid off at this time, then it is … a concern for labour.”

 

(RR)