When the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) resumes its 73rd Annual Delegates’ Conference today, the recently legislated controversial municipal solid waste tax will be part of its focus.
The tax, which all homeowners are required to pay, has caused a major outcry from many taxpayers.
The BWU is moving a resolution requesting the Government to revise and correct aspects of the tax which are “intolerable and oppressive”.
The organisation said that the Government had publicly recognised the basis for the outcry and expressed a willingness to ameliorate aspects of the complaints.
“Be it resolved that this 73rd Annual Delegates’ Conference of the Barbados Workers’ Union calls upon the Government urgently to revise and correct those aspects of the tax which are intolerable and oppressive; and be it further resolved that this tax be no longer administered in a manner which penalises the resident on the basis of acquisition of a property,” states the resolution.
For the first time at the conference, there will be a formal handing over ceremony from outgoing general secretary Sir Roy Trotman to the new general secretary, 38-year-old Toni Moore.
During the morning session Sir Roy will hand over the BWU’s flag and crest to Moore, the first woman to lead the organisation in its 73-year-old history. Its previous general secretaries Sir Hugh Springer and Sir Frank Walcott are National Heroes.