About 194 workers – one-fifth of the National Conservation Commission’s (NCC) estimated 976 employees – are expected to be laid off by the end of the month.
General secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Sir Roy Trotman said yesterday that the BWU had been able to save more than 50 jobs through negotiations, but looming job losses remained high.
“The number [of people being laid off] that we talked about today is no longer 250 but we are talking about 194 persons,” he told reporters after negotiations between union officials and NCC management, including general manager Keith Neblett, at the NCC’s Codrington, St Michael headquarters.
“So there has been a considerable reduction, for which we compliment the minister [of the environment], the board of directors and the management of NCC.
“But we are still in discussions with them because there are some issues that are still to be resolved. For example, we need to see what is the process being used in determining that just under 200 [casualties] we are talking about.”
After earlier talks in March, both sides met for about three hours yesterday to discuss the job cuts mandated by Government across the public sector and alternatives to redundancies.
