THE BARBADOS Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) and the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) signed a three-year Collective Agreement for tourism industry workers this week.
The retroactive agreement for wages and other conditions of employment covers the period December 15, 2014 to December 15, 2017.
During the signing at the BWU’s Headquarters at Solidarity House, witnessed by a number of BWU and BHTA representatives and industry workers, Chairman of the Association, Roseanne Myers, called it a joyous occasion.
“Today is really a great day which signals the end of a process that has seen a lot of collaboration and many hours of discussion between the our two entities and I want to say a special thanks to all who have been involved on both sides.
“As the BWU’s Dwaine Paul, who has been instrumental in the negotiations, said before – it highlights that we have more in common than differences. The signing now paves the way for us to keep the big picture in mind – that of signing the next agreement on time. The only way we can do this is to start our discussions immediately after this signing today. So that by December 1 this year we will be back here to sign the new agreement,” she said.
The BHTA Chairman added, “Yes that is a tall order but we are in the world of business and we should not take two years to negotiate a three-year agreement. So today I want to pledge our willingness to do what is required – we will have our internal discussions so that when our negotiating team comes to the table it will be with a collection of ideas. So that we can continue to have very robust discussions with a strict time line.” (PR)
