ABOUT 30 FIRSTCARIBBEAN BANK employees have been laid off in Barbados.
Yesterday, country manager Daniel Farmer confirmed the redundancies but stressed there had been no mass layoffs or major restructuring.
FirstCaribbean Bank employees in Antigua, St Lucia, Bahamas and Jamaica have also been affected.
“[As] a part of normal business conditions and changes in our business processes and in response to the prevailing economic conditions, FirstCaribbean, like any other business, must continue to make changes to its areas of focus and staffing requirements,” Farmer said.
He added that the bank’s evolving business needs and improvement initiatives had “unfortunately” led to the redundancies.
FirstCaribbean had followed established practices, including consultation with the employees’ representative, the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), he said.
“While we regret the job losses as a result of the changing business requirements, we are confident that we will continue to create new opportunities as our business expands,” he said, adding that those made redundant would have the opportunity to apply for new positions being created across the region.
Farmer explained that FirstCaribbean business in Barbados included the regional head office and processing centre.
He said that over the past 18 months the bank had created and filled approximately 600 new positions across the region, the vast majority of which had been filled by existing staff. He said those positions had provided opportunities for “external candidates” in regional communities to become part of the FirstCaribbean team.
Farmer also revealed that the renovated FirstCaribbean branch at Wildey, St Michael was slated to reopen in July and this would provide new service opportunities. (WG)
