Wrong move!
Government’s intention of using the savings from the Barbados Optional
Savings Scheme (BOSS) for tourism and capital works related projects
has been knocked by Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley.
Speaking on the negative impact Covid-19 national shutdowns worldwide
continue to have on tourism on earnings here, he stated there would be
a dramatic slowdown in the earnings of the foreign reserves and
queried why government was shifting financing away from wages to
tourism construction projects “when its re-emergence is very much in
doubt”.
“You will create further leakage,” he argued in the Lower House
yesterday during the debate on the BOSS Bill 2020.
“Construction relating to fisheries development could have been
considered. Construction renting to resilience infrastructure could
have been considered, but the emphasis here is to shift the money from
civil servants, put it in capital works, facilitate tourism projects
to hopefully get a few jobs and I am not so sure that is a strongly
put case,” he opined.
Atherley utilised the opportunity to highlight several speeches from
the 1991 debates surrounding salary adjustments and drew on several
similarities including the proposal for bonds in lieu of salaries and
of the public servants being the one asked to give up a portion of
their wages.
He also cited the speech from then leader of the Barbados Labour Party
Sir Henry Forde, which highlighted that paying public workers in bonds
was unconstitutional and against the Protection of Wages Act.
The Opposition Leader also took aim at the trade unions, insisting
they must get a true reflection of what the majority of their
membership desired and not just smaller subsets.
“People have to treat to this individually under the law. No union can
agree to this for me or you. You have to agree on your own, so tell me
how a union with 8 000 members can say you had a meeting with 500 and
497 agreed and therefore it was the majority. You cannot give people
the wrong impression in an effort to sell your product,” he argued.
(JMB)̈