In making certain demands of their former employees at this time, workers put on the breadline due to the Covid-19 pandemic are caught up in “a parade of selfishness”.
This was the opinion shared by Political Scientist Peter Wickham as he spoke on the island’s current industrial climate.
Speaking on the impact Covid has had and continues to have on the tourism sector in leaving hundreds of Barbadians out of a job for several months, he said there were obvious implications of hotel workers demanding their outstanding holiday pay and severance in full from an industry which has earned very little this year.
“I think there is a convenient inclination in all of this for all of us to forget we are in very bizarre situation, and whether you are talking about not being paid severance or being paid salary in bonds, all of this is a reaction to the fact that the economy isn’t moving. When I hear a conversation being held about trade union leaders selling out the hotel workers as though agencies that run hotels that have not earned a dime since March would be in a position now to make full payments of severance and full payments of holiday pay as though there is a reserve of money stashed away and they are not paying the hotel workers for spite,” he added.
He pointed out that even though sunset legislation was implemented to allow employees the option to work shorter hours at the hotels to have some financial income, “some workers are saying they are not interested in that, that they want their money and they want to go.”
“All of this is what I consider to be a parade of selfishness and I am hearing it all over the place. So everybody is concerned about how the issue is affecting them personally and no one is taking a step back to look at the big picture,” he said.
Ponting to several other industries where similar attitudes were being expressed, Wickham, who was speaking on the Down to Brass Tacks radio call-in programme insisted, “People have to be a bit more understanding and a lot less anxious to judge in these types of situations.”
“I think this wave of anger as it reflects to trade unionism is grounded in nothing more than selfishness and an unwillingness to understand that we have some challenges we have to deal with that are
not peculiar to Barbados, but are happening globally,” the pollster contended.