The Mia Mottley administration has rebuffed claims by the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) that it has deliberately attempted to undermine the organisation’s status as the national trade union centre.
Earlier this week, General Secretary of CTUSAB Dennis DePeiza expressed deep concern over the government’s continued exclusion of the union from key international labour discussions.
He said the government’s continued refusal to ensure its representation at the annual International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva — despite its recognition by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Public Services International, the global union federation for public service workers — was an insult.
“It is an insult that we constantly have to suffer the indignation of being relegated from our rightful position as the national trade union centre, simply because the government chooses to prioritise its own perception of what it deems the ‘most representative’ labour organisation,” DePeiza told a reporter.
He explained that since 2012, following the withdrawal of the Barbados Workers’ Union from CTUSAB, the national trade union centre has faced ongoing marginalisation.
But in an equally strong rebuttal on Thursday, Minister of Labour Colin Jordan said in a statement that “we have never marginalised or disrespected CTUSAB and will not do so in the future”.
Jordan was adamant that DePeiza’s comments this week seemed like another attempt by him to discredit the government, following DePeiza’s letter to the ILO credentials committee around the time of the ILC in 2022, where the government was accused of not consulting on the composition of the delegation.
The labour minister said the government is committed to following the constitution of the ILO in determining the composition of the delegation to represent the country at sessions of the ILC, and that the leadership of CTUSAB was aware of this.
He pointed out that Article 3, paragraph 5 of the ILO constitution mandates that governments nominate non-government delegates chosen in agreement with organisations that are the most representative of employers and workers.
“The members undertake to nominate non-governmental delegates and advisers chosen in agreement with the industrial organisations, if such organisations exist which are the most representative of employers or workpeople, as the case may be, in their respective countries,” Jordan quoted the ILO document as saying.
The labour minister also explained that the credentials committee has advised that “where several representative workers’ organisations exist in a particular country, the government must take all of them into consideration when it is proceeding to the nomination of the workers’ delegates and advisers. This requires consultations in good faith with all of them with a view to obtaining the agreement of the most representative workers’ organisation on the composition of the workers’ delegation”.
Jordan argued that the government must therefore consult the organisations representing workers.
“It must then determine, based on the consultation, which organisation is the most representative of what the constitution refers to as workpeople. Finally, it must obtain agreement from that organisation on the composition of the workers’ delegation to the conference. Government nominates; it does not choose. This is the case for both the worker and employer delegations,” he insisted.
Minister Jordan added: “In 2023 and 2024, we consulted with CTUSAB and the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), representative organisations of workers in Barbados, and determined that the BWU was the most representative based on two factors: the size of their respective membership, and the range of occupations, sectors, and industries they represent. We will consult with both organisations again this year.”
The government’s commitment to CTUSAB as one of the organisations representing workers is clear, he said.
Jordan disclosed: “In recent years we have increased our subvention to the organisation, and we continue to engage with it in both the Sub-Committee of the Social Partnership and the full Social Partnership. We engaged CTUSAB in developing the Declaration of Mission Barbados, and their perspectives helped to shape the final document. They are fully involved in the drafting of Protocol VII.”
The minister concluded that good governance was not about games or making statements for “newsworthiness”. “We refuse to engage in any games while managing the affairs of this country,” he said.
(EJ)
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