Workers at the state-run Barbados Water Authority (BWA) downed tools this morning, a day after Barbados TODAY reported on a legal opinion submitted by former Chief Justice Sir David Simmons which concluded that they were not entitled to Government’s recently approved five per cent pay hike for public servants.
It was the first real taste of industrial action by the Mia Mottley-led administration since it came to power following the May 24 general elections, with the BWA workers also voicing concern about a number of protracted issues, including the non payment of increments since 2006, job security and general conditions of service.
Warning that enough is enough, the unionized workers, who were off the job from nine this morning, also took issue with the quality of updates they were getting from Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU).
“Every single time we get these updates it is same thing. All they keep saying is that the BWA don’t have money to pay the increments. This is three years now that we have been sacrificing but yet we could hear that people get bring on while at the same time we hearing rumours of plans to cut workers.
[caption id="attachment_278092" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Upset Barbados Water Authority workers were off the job from 9 a.m.[/caption]
“This is foolishness and we not going back to work until we get some straight answers,” said one angry worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another outspoken BWA employee explained that “we held strain for three years. They [management] told us that they would have started making payments in January [this year], but it seems that January is going to come and we still not going to get a cent” .
Members of the BWA’s Rapid Response Unit also openly complained today that management had stopped their overtime payments about two weeks ago, and had chosen instead to use private contractors to refill trenches.
“Could you imagine that eight men would dig out a burst main and fix that main. Sometimes we have to lock it off and come back the next day because the BWA is not paying overtime, but as soon as we done, we could [see] a private truck and backhoe coming to fill back that trench,” said one of the affected workers, who claimed that private contractors were paid as much as $5,000 to refill a hole that BWA workers dug by hand.
As the impasse dragged on today, BWU General Secretary Toni Moore met with the workers, who were gathered at the rear of the water authority’s Pine, St Michael headquarters, around noon.
BWA General Manager Keithroy Halliday also addressed the disgruntled workers this afternoon, giving them the assurance that their concerns would be ventilated at a follow up meeting to be attended by BWA Chairman Leodean Worrell.
It was at this point that the workers agreed to return to work tomorrow.
However, as they exited today’s meeting, some of the workers told Barbados TODAY they were far from satisfied with the outcome.
They however expressed hope that the promised follow up meeting would provide some meaningful answers to their concerns.
Following the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance’s announcement of an across-the-board five per cent pay hike for public servants in her June 11 mini-Budget, the increase was approved by Parliament on August 14.
However, there has been some confusion over whether workers at statutory corporations, including the BWA, would benefit from the increase.
Sir David was therefore retained by the BWA Chairman to submit a legal opinion, which he prepared in conjunction with his daughter, attorney-at-law Lynne-Marie Simmons, and submitted on August 22.
However, after reviewing several key legal instruments, including the Civil Establishment Act and the Public Service (General) Order 2018, Sir David submitted that “it is our opinion that the employees of the Authority are not entitled, as of right, to a salary increase of five per cent on the ground that employees in the Civil Establishment of Government have been accorded such an increase”.
He also pointed out that “to the extent that the Public Service (General) Order 2018 contains no reference to the Authority and makes no provision for an increase in the salaries of employees of the Authority, it is not axiomatic that such employees are entitled to an increase in salary of five per cent merely because officers in the central Government have been granted such an increase”.
However, Sir David acknowledged that based on precedent there may be “legitimate expectation” on the part of the BWA workers, who had previously benefited from “normal salary/wages increase agreed to by the Central Government and unions and adopted by the BWA for the periods 2005/2006 to 2009/2010”.
With that said, Moore, in a statement this afternoon, questioned why the legal opinion was sort in the first place, given that it was understood in the past that increases to civil servants extended to the BWA.
“The Barbados Workers’ Union was made aware that the [BWA] board sought a legal opinion on the matter. Our response was that an opinion was not necessary because history would show that if Central Government was getting an increase, the workers of the Barbados Water Authority got the same increase, and it was applied even within the same time frames,” she said.
The union boss also said her executive was deeply concerned about the length of time it was taking for workers to receive their increments, which date back to 2006.
She also revealed that BWA staff were disturbed by rumblings of an impending restructuring of the organization, which would inevitably result in job losses.
Barbados TODAY made several attempts to contact Halliday, as well as Minster of Energy and Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams for comment on the situation, but was unsuccessful.
colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb
The post Enough is enough! appeared first on Barbados Today.
from Barbados Today https://ift.tt/2QcqJZA
via IFTTT https://ift.tt/2M7F8D0
No comments: