As the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) seeks to widen its mandate, it is being rapped for not opening internal communication lines with its own employees.
Making a brief presentation to the debate on the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2019, General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Senator Toni Moore described it as ironic that an organisation, which focuses on disseminating information to the general public, was not doing the same with its staff.
“What I find interesting in the discussions of the changes to take place is that up to now the people have not been let into the changes. After nearly a year of a new board being in place at the CBC the employees and their representatives have not had a chance to meet with the board, the employees have not had a meeting with their chairman, that the union representing those employees on its own has not had a chance to meet with the board, but yet we are discussing changes that are impacting people.
“So when I hear about these changes, and although I offer no criticism for the changes in themselves, but recognising they are not being supported by actions where it matters most Shakespeare comes to mind: ‘a rose by any other name is still a rose,’” she stressed.
The BWU is the bargaining agent for CBC employees and Moore told the Upper House that last week’s work stoppage at the island’s lone state-owned television station was a major result of those closed communication lines.
“A few days ago, we had at the CBC a demonstration of sorts… arising out of negotiations where we were discussing a restructuring a year ago and there was agreement reached that there would be some payments made to staff – payments over a 42-month period… When it became difficult for those payments to be made within the monthly time frame, we recognised that the staff wasn’t hearing anything from anybody. There was no communication, no internal broadcasting and it is only when staff reacted that management started to connect to the fact that maybe we should speak to the people about why they are not seeing their payments,” she expressed. (JMB)