THERE IS STILL room in Barbados for the voluntarist model in trade unionism to function.
That is the view of members of the top brass of the National Union of Public Workers’ (NUPW) who were speaking to a seeming “new phase” in industrial relations, which is seeing the intervention at the level of a tribunal to settle disputes.
There is provision in the Employment Rights’ Act for matters to go to that height, and both NUPW general secretary Dennis Clarke and president Walter Maloney said the act had been championed by unions.
Clarke noted that the current impasse over the retrenchment of workers at the National Conservation Commission (NCC) was an historic event in terms of a dispute at a statutory corporation reaching that level.
“It is part of the act, so you enforce that . . . . This is just another step,” Maloney explained.
Looking at whether the intervention of the tribunal fell within the voluntarist model practised locally, Maloney said it was something that had to be looked at carefully.
“There must be room in this country where the voluntarist model can continue to function. [If] not we will be running every minute carrying something to the tribunal,” Maloney said.
In echoing Maloney’s statements, Clarke said unions had obtained better results using the voluntarist model, compared to the route of industrial courts and tribunals for which the private sector and other bodies had been “clamouring”.
“That is why we were trying to keep this [dispute] in the arena of the voluntarist approach. Somehow it had to unfortunately jump out of that and now we’re into the tribunal. But we would rather it remain in the voluntarist arena,” Clarke injected.
The voluntarist model allows for employers and employees representatives to reach a gentleman’s agreement without going to court or a tribunal to settle a dispute.
