Several hundred workers who were dismissed under the National Clean-Up Initiative after its temporary programmes ended are to be reinstated on a full-time basis from March 1, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced on Sunday night at a Barbados Labour Party public meeting in Wotton, Christ Church.
“As of the 1st of March, all workers in the 720 programme will work every week of the year. All week on, week on, week on, week on, week on, not the week off,” she told supporters.
The announcement brings relief to nearly 2 000 workers whose contracts had ended in 2023 after assisting with cleaning ashfall from the La Soufrière eruptions in St Vincent and the Grenadines and later contributing to the island’s national beautification efforts.
Outlining the programme’s evolution, Mottley explained: “We started some programmes during COVID-19 when the ashfall happened. Remember we had the ash workers programme and we had them working for a while. We also started something called the 360 programme. You remember that? And then it changed to 720.”
She described the transition from the 360 to the 720 programme, which initially required workers to operate on a week-on, week-off schedule. “We said, look, bear with us. We know that some people would like to work every week in the 360, but because people needed work across the board, let us do 720 and you work week on, week off. When we catch ourselves, we will change it,” she said.
Concerns raised by the Barbados Workers’ Union over the entrepreneurial and self-employment-based nature of the programme were also addressed.
“I want to tell you tonight that I have heard all of them. The representations from the union, the representations from Adrian Forde especially who every week coming and running after me in Cabinet when Cabinet break. ‘Prime Minister, Prime Minister, can we do this?’ I said, ‘Adrian, hold tight. We’re running the numbers. We’re running the numbers,’” she said.
Mottley stressed that sustainability guided the programme’s planning. “One thing about me, if I can do something, it got to be sustainable. We understood in COVID-19 that the ashworker programme was a temporary programme and even then we ran it for much longer than it was supposed to run for. What I will not do is to do something and then got to turn around and send home the people in six months or 12 months because I do not believe in treating people.”
The prime minister also urged workers to take pride in their work and the upkeep of public spaces. “I expect that for the 60th anniversary of our independence and the fifth anniversary of Barbados as a republic, I don’t want to see no grass longer than an inch or two,” she declared. “I don’t want to see no overgrown lots in this country.”
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