JOBS PAIN

HUNDREDS OF EMPLOYEES in the public sector are facing demotion.
An undisclosed number of acting positions are being abolished, while transfers and reversions are starting to take place, workers told the DAILY NATION – and it is hitting them deep in their pockets.
Trade union sources explained that there were more than 4 000 people acting in temporary posts in the public sector and an even larger number of workers acting in established positions.
Some of them complained yesterday that they had been in acting positions for as much as nine years, and had recently been directed to revert to their substantive posts; while some employees from agencies under the new Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) had also been acting as accountants but have had to revert to the administrative assistant post, a clerical position.
One employee who had been reportedly an acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Housing is now back at the Ministry of Transport and Works as chief planning officer – a ministry she left nine years earlier.
The reversion, a source explained, came with a substantial drop in pay. From between $10 112.50 to a high of $11 376.94 based on perks, down to $8 242.98 in her substantive post as chief planning officer.