IF SOMEONE WERE TO ASK me to name the positive things that the Government has done for workers since its election to office in 2008, I would be hard-pressed to come up with anything beyond the salary increase for public workers in 2008, and the enactment of the Employment Rights Act in 2012.
The effects of the salary increase have been steadily eroded over the last seven years. Workers are far worse off than they were when the DLP strode triumphantly into office, after 14 years in opposition, promising much but as fate would have it, delivering precious little. The workers that are worse off do not include the majority of DLP parliamentarians, as I am yet to hear of one that has sacrificed a lucrative private sector career to give public service.
Their founding leader, the Rt Excellent Errol Barrow, did much to create a middle class in this country but to their eternal shame, his successors in the DLP seem hell-bent on destroying that legacy.
Personally, I have not seen this level of poverty and deprivation since the 1960s. Surely this is not what the people of this country voted for in 2008. By now a caring Government would have realised that it is doing more harm than good, and put an end to the misery that it is inflicting on the people. Time has long passed when they should have done the decent thing and lifted the burden off the country by resigning for the greater good.
Parliamentary pensions
However, the greater good seems not to be the guiding principle of this administration. I could be wrong but it appears that come hell or high water, the present administration would hold on to office until each of them qualifies for their parliamentary pensions.
Members of the House of Assembly, except the Prime Minister, and office holders in the Senate qualify for their pensions after serving eight years. At that point they qualify, at age 50 for a pension of half the highest salary they would have received.
The PM qualifies for his pension, at any age, after being sworn in to that office. MPs who serve 12 years or more years qualify for a pension of two-thirds of the highest salary they would have received. It is interesting to note when they pass away their widows and children qualify for a survivor’s pension but a similar survivor’s pension was abolished for public officers in 1980.
Suffering and privation
My theory is that despite the suffering and privation that the Government is inflicting on the average Barbadian, they will remain in office until each and every DLP member of parliament qualifies for their pensions. That eventuality will occur in January 2016, the eighth anniversary of their election to office.
The Senate appointment of lawmakers, who lost their seats in 2013, and their subsequent ministerial appointments, to a severely bloated Cabinet, will serve to qualify them for pensions. That act, more so than any other, strengthens my thesis that the overriding motivation for staying in office is the qualification for pensions for life when they reach the age of 50.
And it seems that nothing will get in the way of their achieving that goal. We have already seen 6 000 Government workers being sent home since June 2013, with the vast majority losing their rights to a pension and gratuity, while MPs cling tenaciously to theirs.
I have often said that this Government appears to be running the country by trial and error. To my mind, the infliction of over $200 million in additional taxes in the recent budget is just another example. In effect, they are trying something to see if it works, while buying time to qualify for pensions. Unfortunately, they seem oblivious to the suffering that they have caused among the middle and lower classes in this society.
The country seems headed for more of the same to at least January 2016.
If they are still in office when that fateful day rolls around, my fervent prayer is that they show some mercy on the suffering masses and resign for the greater good.
