BWU warns of unfair treatment, migrant hiring

The Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) has raised concerns about unfair employment practices across businesses and challenged a company’s use of an entirely migrant workforce at two major west coast hotels.

BWU General Secretary Toni Moore made the disclosure on Thursday at a press conference at its Solidarity House headquarters to discuss a dispute in which workers contracted by the Business and Employment Centre (B&EC) received termination and suspension letters.

Without elaborating, Moore suggested that importing workers should complement the workforce, not replace it.

She named “a company that has been brought in to deal with two major hotel establishments on the west coast” which hired “100 per cent migrant labour”. 

Moore told journalists: “Somebody has to be able to answer to that. Yes, the Barbados Workers Union may support, in some areas, that we have a shortage of skills. But what we can’t and won’t ever accept is that there is so much of a shortage that you don’t advertise the positions. You don’t make sure that there is a fair enough balance between overseas skills and local skills.”

She argued that where there was a genuine skills shortage, companies should pass those skills on to Barbadians, even if they were taken on as general workers.

When migrant labourers were brought into Barbados and treated unfairly, the union had to address the situation on the basis of parity, she said, adding that bringing a worker into the country did not justify expecting them to settle for substandard conditions.

“But also, when workers are brought in without regard to a local workforce that is looking for employment, then it becomes a problem of undermining our labour market as well. So, when we speak to those issues, we speak to them in a broader context of fairness.”

Moore continued: “I know that we are seeing a lot of development going on around Barbados.… The Labour Department has been quite busy over the last few months trying to chase a number of issues that have been brought to its attention, outside of the union even.”

Moore said the union had recently asked the department to work on another issue. She did not elaborate.

The BWU general secretary recounted the 85-year-old union’s historic struggles involving major employers such as the Barbados Telephone Company, the Port Authority, the Barbados Foundry and the sugar industry.

She said these were places “we would know have been famous in industrial relations terms for some of the major strikes”. 

“But today… we are hearing so many different companies that typically would not have been associated with major conflict. 

As the union turned 85, coinciding with World Day of Decent Work, the union leader urged workers to draw inspiration from those at the Business and Employment Centre and stand firm for the rights they were entitled to.

Moore also noted that, while not everyone always got what they sought, or within the time they sought it, one thing that helped Barbados be regarded as a country that punched above its weight was that its people knew the importance of taking a stand.

(EJ)