The workers’ unions may not know the lay-off numbers, but the International Monetary Fund (IMF) surely does.
The IMF reported yesterday that Government had sent home 1 800 public sector employees so far and was on track with its economic stabilisation measures – despite postponing lay-offs from January 15 to 31.
“We’ve been informed by the authorities that approximately 1 800 people were let go . . . by January 31 and that the remaining 1 200 would occur by March 31.
A lot of these are coming from the public enterprises, not only from the central Government,” IMF mission chief for Barbados, Nicole Laframboise, told journalists in a conference call from Washington, DC, yesterday, where IMF directors met to discuss Barbados’ Article IV Consultation three days ago.
Describing Government’s programme to retrench 3 000 workers as being important and “reasonably on track despite delay”, Laframboise said the lay-offs were crucial to controlling the wages bill, which was one of the key line items Government would be able to control in the short term.
