?PRIME MINISTER Freundel Stuart should remove Senator Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo for her consistent mishandling of critical matters as Minister of Labour, says Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley.
Declaring such a move would be in the best interest of the country, Mottley said Byer-Suckoo had demonstrated she was out of her depth in the ministry given her woeful handling of the LIME dispute, Barbados’ representation to the International Labour Organization (ILO), recent sugar industry talks that led to a split in the Social Partnership, and her oversight of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
“The job of holding the Social Partnership together is clearly beyond Minister Suckoo,” Mottley said, “and the Prime Minister ought to recognize that and allow someone who can hold it together to assume responsibility of the Ministry of Labour.
“It is too serious a position at too critical a time for the country for her to remain there.”
Mottley’s comments came in response to the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), the most powerful trade union, pulling out of the 20-year-old Social Partnership and Prices and Incomes Protocol which they were integral to establishing, and blamed their exit on Byer-Suckoo’s actions
