Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has been asked to intervene in what general secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), Sir Roy Trotman, could develop into “a major dispute” with the Barbados Water Authority (BWA).
“The Barbados Workers’ Union and the Barbados Water Authority are on a collision course,” Sir Roy told a Press conference at the BWU headquarters, Solidarity House, yesterday.
He explained the dispute arose over the union’s exclusion from the team negotiating the terms of “three or four” major BWA projects with international funding agencies.
“The understanding was and ought to have been that the BWU would be part of those discussions which have significant implications for the job security and other work conditions of the staff of the BWA,” Sir Roy said.
He added that the BWU was “alarmed that local gurus managed to take possession of reports resulting from the meetings and had “kept” them for about six months “before . . . being forced to give copies to the BWU in March 2011 when they demanded a BWU response within five days”.
“It appears that some smart persons believe that the [Barbados] Water Authority workers will meekly submit to having their jobs marginalized or even taken away,” Sir Roy stated.
Government had secured an Inter-American Development Bank loan for a Barbados Water and Sanitation Systems Upgrade project to be executed by the BWA, to reorganize and modernise the corporation, rehabilitate the potable water supply and for a water reuse plan.
In February last year, former Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Arni Walters was appointed executive chairman of the BWA with a mandate to “oversee the expeditious implementation” of Government’s programme for water resource management.
In a recent interview with the SUNDAY SUN, Walters had said “reorganization and modernisation” of the BWA was his “biggest challenge”. (GC)
