The strike by workers of the National Assistance Board earlier this week has now been settled. It raised important issues way beyond the usual complaints about conditions of work and more pay.
It was about the treatment of an experienced worker whose colleagues thought she was unfairly not appointed to the position of team leader.
First of all, it speaks volumes about a worker’s reputation when her colleagues are prepared to “down tools” because of their perception that she has earned a promotion which she is being denied. After all, they work alongside her day in, day out and they must know her qualities!
But the issue does not end there, for the complaint’s genesis appears to have been a battle of the forms or certificates over the value and qualification of experience. During the radio news reports there was some mention of four CXCs as a major criterion to qualify for the post of team leader.
Now this may be important, but in the Civil Service there are many hard-working and faithful workers who are doing a very good job with fewer than the required number of certificates or in some cases with none at all.
It is true that certification is the order of the day, and that examinations now dominate our lives at various times. The 11-Plus and CXC (CSEC and CAPE) examinations are all steps in the process of becoming one of the tertiary level graduates in “every household” with the requisite pieces of paper as evidence of a set of knowledge. The same is true of the journey through to the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic and the Barbados Community College.
Yet in the general scheme of things, there has to be a place for the experienced worker. Experience counts in all aspects of human endeavour, and in some jobs it is experience more than anything else that ought to be a key factor. One may be a graduate with the highest honours in a specific course, but how to apply that knowledge is something which can be acquired only on the job.
Even in cricket, for example, the rookie opening batsmen will often encounter situations for which the answer could only come from being out in the middle or from hearing from some other more experienced practitioner who has been there and done that.
So also the value of experience matters to the professions of caring for human beings, and both doctors and nurses have to undergo internships so that they are able to blend theoretical knowledge with practice. We suspect that a national assistance worker’s training will only enhance the high degree of experience, sensitivity and empathy, most if not all, of which has to be gathered while on the job.
Private and public employers should therefore give due weight to experience in setting out the qualifications for jobs, many of which require experience more so than paper qualification.
We can draw from this latest episode of worker dissatisfaction the lesson that experience is not only a great teacher; it is not to be ignored, because sometimes it is the best qualification for those jobs that directly touch on providing care for the vulnerable.
