CBC staff on strike

Staff of the state-owned Caribbean Broadcasting Corpora-tion (CBC) are off the job, with no indication given as to when they will return.

This was confirmed in a statement released to the media yesterday evening by trade union representatives of the workers, the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU). According to the Executive Assistant in the BWU’s Marketing Department, Sindy Green, the workers are on strike and the Executive Council is expected to meet soon to give full endorsement to and support for the strike action. At that time, the Council is also expected to decide whether the strike action is to be escalated.

At the root of the matter is the issue of pay increases. The BWU representative says that CBC, which operates several radio stations and the island’s lone television station, agreed to pay increases in a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Minister of Labour, Social Security and Human Resource Development, Senator Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo, but has subsequently reneged on the deal. Reportedly, only some workers received their increments.

“This is the second occasion in recent times where a statutory board, having agreed at ministerial level to pay increments to workers who have not had their performance appraisal system put in place, refused to pay those increments or has decided that it will only pay the part that it finds convenient; the other board, being a neighbour to the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, the Barbados Water Authority,” Green said.

Both of these matters are under the chairmanship of the Minister of Labour. In the latter matter, workers of the BWA were off the job for a week early last year, protesting over increments owed since 2006. At that time, they garnered support from other divisions of the Union including the Barbados Port Authority Inc. and the Grantley Adams International Airport.