A few more employees to leave the Port

A RATIONALISATION exercise, undertaken by the Barbados Port Incorporated (BPI), has seen as many as 100 employees willingly part ways with the Government owned entity, between April 2014 and now.

Word of this has come from Chief Executive Officer of the BPI, David Jean-Marie, who said this streamlining of their operations was carried out without any major industrial unrest.

Noting that the efforts were carried out in the “spirit of co-operation”, he explained that while those who have left so far did so by way of attrition, voluntary separation and voluntary severance, there are some persons set to go by the end of this week by the means of involuntary separation. The CEO was speaking yesterday morning during a ceremony at the Bridgetown Port to commission Berth 5, the new marina at the Shallow Draught and several new pieces of equipment at the Port.

In an interview after the ceremony, the Port boss said those who will be laid off this week, which should number no more than 10, will be done on the principle of last in first out.

He made the point as he noted that all the staff cuts, which cost BPI in the region of $4 million, were done in collaboration with the Barbados Workers’ Union, and were geared at improving the efficiencies of the organisation and bringing the staff complement down to the optimal level of no more than 500 persons.

Since the process started, Jean-Marie said they have not been hiring any new staff as employees retire, and as some have chosen to leave, others have shown an interest in transferring to other departments within the organisation.

“We would have ensured that they were counselled accordingly, because we intend not to throw people under the bus, so to speak. We want to keep a good relationship with our former employees, as well as our retirees and existing pensioners,” he said.

Turning his attention to future work at the Port, the CEO said that as part of the Port Master Plan, there are proposals to construct Berth 6, which would be perpendicular to Berth 5; to purchase another gantry crane and to construct a large container freight station (CFS), which would be used to replace Sheds 2, 3 and 4. He said if the CFS is put in place, it would not only improve the Port’s efficiency, but also help to reduce the quantity of vehicular traffic coming through the Port on any given day.

“We are also considering building a homeport facility. Currently we use Shed 3... an old shed to homeport the passengers here. We are considering building a homeport facility within the Port where the Shed 2 is, in the near to medium future,” he added. (JRT)