Barbados Workers' Union Finds Retail Workers Underpaid Due to Unfair Contracts

The Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) says too many retail workers in this country are underpaid, primarily due to unfair contracts.

Officials from the union, led by general secretary Toni Moore, toured 15 supermarkets yesterday to get an idea of the working conditions and encourage the workers to speak up about their concerns and join the union.

Legal officer Alexandra Thomas, speaking to the media in the car park of Massy Warrens after the group walked through the St Michael supermarket, said one of the challenges of workers in general was the living wage.

“We want to ensure that workers have a liveable wage and in order to do that, we have to make sure that they have the hours and the pay to match that. Unfortunately, both in the fast food industry and the supermarket industry, the hours that some of these workers have been receiving have not been sufficient,” she said.

Thomas said some supermarket and fast food workers were classified as permanent part-time workers.

“You have people working in excess of 20, 25, 30 years as parttime workers which means they are reaching a maximum of 32 hours on any given week. That cannot be enough to support a family, it cannot be enough to support your children, your grandchildren, and we want that to come to an end,” she said.

Moore said this was a problem for a long time and the only solutions were either giving the workers more hours or increasing their wages. She said some of the other issues they came across were environmental conditions, health and safety factors, time allowed for breaks and providing proper seating for workers.

Dissatisfaction

Deputy general secretary Dwaine Paul said they were surprised at the level of dissatisfaction expressed by workers. At that point, the group had previously visited Carlton and A1 Supermarket, Jordans Supermarket, Trimart and Massy Holetown.

“The major complaints all related to compensation, but what we did not bet on was the level at which the staff members were going to express their dissatisfaction. You have a sector that was given the opportunity to continue to work during the harshest time in Barbados, the COVID period, but the workers who did yeoman service during this time still have not really been recognised.

“We believe that it’s time that the workers in this retail sector in Barbados get their due. We want to use this opportunity today to call up all of them and tell them that it is time that we come together under one umbrella, the Barbados Works’ Union, to lobby for better. This is not a time to be afraid; this is a time to stand up and demand exactly what is for you,” he said.