That some staff of the National Conservation Commission (NCC) work “in inhumane conditions”, if true, must be condemned – and brought to an immediate end.
Still, we wonder what National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) general secretary Dennis Clarke meant by “inhumane” when he sought to respond to Minister of the Environment Dr Denis Lowe’s attack on the slovenly at the NCC’s workplace and on its projects. Strange as it might appear, it were better that Mr Clarke’s accusation was a red herring.
Clearly Mr Clarke was neither impressed nor amused by Minister Lowe’s charge at an address to an NCC?staff retreat last Wednesday that some workers were short-changing the commission by “breezing” and not pulling their weight. Mr Clarke seems unwilling to accept the public announcement that some of those who ought to be leading by example at the NCC have grave difficulty in carrying out a proper day’s work.
The NUPW general secretary sees the minister’s sentiments as “unfair, out of character and [doing no] justice to the employment policy and practice of current and past administrations”.
And Mr Clarke has advised the minister that he needs to examine the setting up of the NCC, how it was staffed by both administrations, before he makes “those sorts of statements”.
Of course Mr Clarke was supporting an NCC worker’s position that some of the very workers Mr Lowe accused of breezing were among those “brought on by the minister himself”.
Dover ranger/warden Timothy Jordan, after describing on a radio call-in Mr Lowe’s charges against NCC workers as unfair, was himself summoned to appear before his general manager Keith Neblett, obviously to explain himself.
The Barbados Workers’ Union, yet to make a statement on Dr Lowe’s charges, will meet today on the issue with those NCC workers who are members of that union, according to Mr Jordan, a shop steward.
Now that Minister Lowe has put out to the whole community that much is wrong with the work habits of some staff of the NCC, and that it can no longer be business as usual – particularly in the case of highly paid people just breezing – he must present for those of us whose sensibilities he has aroused a formula for resolution.
Naturally the workers’ unions have a duty to speak for their members; they have an even greater responsibilty to ensure that their people understand they must give good work for wages earned.
And Dr Lowe needs to speak to the alleged “inhumane conditions”.
These will be the only true steps to rectitude.
