More than 700 Sanitation Service Authority employees are finally poised to receive their overdue performance incentive pay next week, after months of industrial tensions and delays over the government-backed scheme, Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), Wayne Walrond, said on Wednesday.
“I am pleased to announce that at last, management is able to say definitively, that during the course of this month, they are committed to making the incentive payment; and therefore, we commend management for being able to be at the stage of finalising this arrangement, so workers can be paid, hopefully, by next week,” Walrond told Barbados TODAY.
“We look forward to that arrangement being honoured. We will continue to monitor the situation, and any issues evolving out of this arrangement, we will continue to thrash out, if there are issues to be addressed.”
The money will be backdated to April 1 this year, and is being disbursed to employees at different rates according to their duties, he added.
“The immediate man that deals with the garbage, his rate should be the highest; the persons that give the support like operations and then the administrative staff will be the least. But they have a formula worked out to deal with the various levels. Even though not perfect, that’s how it is going to be done,” the NUPW leader said.
According to Walrong, the NUPW has been in constant contact with the management of the authority regarding the status of the incentive pay.
He acknowledged that the performance scheme, which had been initiated by the government, involved a series of meetings on how it would be rolled out.
The incentive plan has been a contentious issue for months. In mid-2024, workers, including truck drivers, loaders and administrative staff, staged a wildcat strike supported by the Caswell Franklyn-led Unity Workers Union (UWU), which is not recognised by SSA management. They demanded resolution of the incentive pay dispute and improvements in working conditions.
The SSA had declared the work stoppage a breach of protocol. The NUPW, as the recognised bargaining agent, instructed its members to return to work, while Franklyn insisted his members would remain on the picket line until their demands were addressed. However, all workers subsequently returned to their duties.
Earlier this year, the SSA revised its controversial scheme for workers, who last year suspended industrial action to allow for the development of a revamped plan to meet their demands.
The NUPW had previously granted the SSA additional time to revise the original incentive plan, which it had presented to the union. At that time, the union said it had asked the workers to give their employer a little more time to establish clear criteria for the scheme.
SSA chairman Ramon Alleyne revealed in January this year that the revised plan had been submitted to the NUPW. He had requested that both parties return to the negotiating table in early February to finalise the new proposal.
Since that time, the union asked for yet another revision, which has since been honoured by the authority. (EJ)
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