Exactly how accumulated holiday is treated in Barbados must become clearer, says Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Stephen Lashley.
Speaking during the debate on the Holidays with Pay Bill in the Lower House on Tuesday afternoon, he highlighted that the new legislation was looking at how to create some flexibility whereby employee and employer could negotiate how the annual holiday could be split into more than two occasions.
Pointing to a court matter, he highlighted the need to clarify provisions in the legislation dealing with where an employee would have accumulated several days of holiday that should have been taken one calendar year, but which rolled into other years.
Lashley, the MP for Christ Church West Central, said there was some vagueness regarding exactly how such a scenario should be treated, and whether the accumulation of holiday over several years was covered under the current legislation.
“Perhaps it would be opportune to look at that to ensure that the relevant provisions are inserted into the legislation whenever that can happen to deal with the whole question of accumulated holiday,” he said.
Lashley noted that the bill would tie in with the Employment Rights Act and would allow the CLO and trade unions where there are complaints under the Holidays with Pay Act to put those complaints to the Employment Rights Tribunal.
“It streamlines that and creates more certainty within the law in relation to how the Tribunal seeks to enforce both the rights and obligations of individuals under the Holidays with Pay Act,” he added. (JMB)
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