Trade unionist and former senator Caswell Franklyn has defended the legislation passed to regularise the appointment of more than 2 000 public officers.
He said while critics question the Prime Minister’s motives, the law is a practical response to decades of administrative failure in the Public Service and a problem created long before the current administration took office.
Franklyn, in a media statement in the wake of Parliament’s approval of legislation to appoint temporary and acting public officers who have served for three years or more prior to January 1, 2026, said the move should be viewed against the long and troubled history of Public Service appointments in Barbados.
“On the face of it, the goal of the legislation appears laudable,” he noted, pointing out that thousands of public servants will now enjoy greater security of tenure and the ability to “move on with their lives”.
He acknowledged that some commentators have suggested ulterior political motives behind the move, particularly as it was introduced by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley. As a long-standing trade unionist representing public workers, Franklyn said he felt compelled to add historical context often missing from the debate.
He recalled that a similar situation arose in the final days of the Owen Arthur administration, when Parliament passed the Public Service Act, which came into effect on December 31, 2007. That legislation paved the way for the appointment of more than 5 000 temporary or acting officers who had served for three years or more.
Amending the Constitution
Franklyn said that at the time, many, including himself, believed the provision was unconstitutional, given a High Court ruling that Parliament had no authority to appoint public officers without first amending the Constitution. Despite those concerns, he added, no objections were raised because workers were more focused on the outcome than the process.
“No such constitutional amendment was made in 2007,” Franklyn said, yet the appointments were carried out under the subsequent Democratic Labour Party administration “with nary a whimper from any of the constitutional purists”.
He added that the 2007 Act also sought to prevent a recurrence by stipulating that no established post in the Public Service should remain vacant for more than three months.
That provision, he said, was later extended to 12 months at the urging of the Personnel Administration Division, which argued the original time frame was too short.
“Even with the extension, the public officers who were supposed to manage the process steadfastly refused or neglected to process the appointments,” he said.
By October 2020, the backlog had again ballooned into the thousands, prompting the Mottley administration to pass the Public Service (Appointments) Act, 2020. This time, Franklyn said, Parliament “did the right thing” by first altering the Constitution to lawfully effect the appointments.
Despite that intervention, he argued, the same pattern of administrative failure persisted. By 2025, the backlog had once again exceeded 2 000 officers.
Franklyn questioned what realistic options were open to the Government. While the most correct response might have been to bring charges against those who failed to comply with mandatory provisions of the Public Service Act, he said doing so would be impractical.
“The list of persons involved ranges from permanent secretaries to heads of department and personnel officers across ministries,” he noted. “Bringing charges against all these persons would be a logistical nightmare.”
Against that backdrop, he rejected the notion that the Prime Minister should be faulted for choosing the legislative route.
“The Prime Minister is a politician who must return to the electorate intermittently to renew her mandate,” he said. “What is wrong with her doing the right thing by over 2 000 public officers and expecting to reap the gratitude of those benefiting? This is what politicians do.”
He maintained that the legislation should be seen less as political opportunism and more as a necessary if imperfect solution, to a chronic administrative problem that successive governments have failed to resolve.
(NS/PR)
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