Barbados risks a deepening crisis in industrial relations unless urgent steps are taken to bolster the country’s labour institutions, the head of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) warned on Wednesday, calling for immediate increases in staffing and resources at the Labour Department to prevent “justice delayed” for workers.
BWU General Secretary Toni Moore, speaking at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre during the signing of the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) for Barbados, said the BWU’s top priority is no longer drafting fresh legislation but ensuring that existing laws are enforced.
“Congress of the Barbados Workers Union has determined that as an important objective for the union and for the industrial relations climate within which we serve, we have to work towards enforcement of legislation,” Moore said. “What is the use of many pieces, good pieces, of legislation if the people whose lives it is intended to govern and protect do not feel as if they’re protected, do not feel as if fairness is being meted out to them.”
Moore appealed directly to the Minister of Labour Colin Jordan to expedite long-promised amendments to the Trade Union Act, noting that protracted disputes over union recognition continue to plague workers across the country.
“We look forward to seeing the Trade Union Act enacted,” she said. “That’s not a new piece, [it] has been on the cards for long. So we need the institutions bolstered.”
While praising labour officers for their commitment, Moore said the department is “stretched beyond capacity”, with some grievance cases left in limbo for up to two years. She also highlighted delays at the Employment Rights Tribunal, stressing that slow adjudication undermines confidence in the industrial relations system.
“This is no indictment on the labour officers, they are simply stretched beyond capacity and a case has to be made for them to be supported with manpower, and with the other resources that will help to deliver in a timely manner,” she said. “How often we hear complaints of people having complaints before the Labour Department for a year and two years and so on, and then the Employment Rights Tribunal, that still needs to be functioning as well and we still are very attentive to the reality that justice delayed is justice denied.”
The BWU leader welcomed the new DWCP—signed by the government, her union, and other social partner representatives—as a tool not only for improving employment standards but for advancing Barbados’ wider development agenda and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Moore said: “We see this Decent Work Country Programme as a very important step in helping us to achieve the objectives that we want for labour, but we see it also as a very important step for Mission Barbados, because decent work country programmes are not just siloed for the world of work, but decent work country programmes are intended to assist and promote national development strategies and the achievement of the sustainable development goals.” (SB)
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