National Wellness policy soon

Within six months, the National Wellness Policy that has been in the works since 2016 is expected to be completed and implemented.

This was revealed by the General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union, Toni Moore, as she gave her morning remarks on the second day of the Week of Excellence Workshop, which was held at Solidarity House yesterday.

Under the theme “Improving Public Sector Productivity of Awareness, Initiative and Actioning”, Moore revealed that yesterday’s workshop was of special significance as they planned to make speedy progress on the proposed National Wellness Policy for Barbados.

“You will recall we started this journey at last year’s Week of Excellence Programme and it is our intention, with your solid support, that we conclude this policy by mid-year,” she said.

Minister of Labour, Social Security and Human Resource Development, Sen. Dr. the Honourable Esther Byer Suckoo, expressed that a national policy may seem a little drastic, but the way non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are affecting Barbadians and having an impact on the healthcare bill, and the spending of the National Insurance on sick leave and sickness policy, are causes of concern. She noted that this also affects the level of productivity and GDP of the island and revealed that the workplace wellness programmes that will be birthed as a result of the policy can help the workforce become healthier and fitter and benefit the island in the long run.

The General Secretary went on to urge persons present to remember to address the needs of every employee in the wellness programmes and reminded them that they were writing a policy that should help working families to balance work, family commitments, and work around childcare or elderly care.

She also added that the Union was of the opinion that policies should meet the needs of other issues as well, such as the needs of menopausal women and other biological issues that women face. She expressed that some of these issues are still taboo in Barbados but they are issues that the Barbados Workers’ Union have had to deal with.

“We are living in the 21st century and we must make attempts to meet the needs of not just parts of our workforce, but the entire workforce,” she concluded.