Government could soon find itself on the wrong end of a class action suit from the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW).
General secretary Roslyn Smith said the union was considering suing on behalf of 75 per cent of Immigration Department staff who had fallen sick as a result of environmental issues at their Wharf Road headquarters in Bridgetown.
Speaking to the media following a closed door meeting with shop stewards on Wednesday night at Dalkeith, St Michael, Smith said five years ago Government, through the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc., announced the ground floor and part of the first floor of the BTI car park on the Princess Alice Highway would be converted into office space for the Immigration Department.
“[The building] was supposed to be finished by June and every month we’re getting a kind of extended handover date,” Smith said.
“Today I tried to find out from the department how soon and they are still are not in a position to tell me when the building will be handing over,” she added.
Smith said she could not give a number as they were still compiling current and former staffers who had symptoms of gastroenteritis, sinusitis and asthma, among others.
Earlier this year, Minister with responsibility for Immigration, Senator Darcy Boyce, announced the work for the new offices was at “a very advanced stage” and should be completed by August.
During an immigration and customs officers’ workshop at St Ann’s Fort, Boyce said the new office space would include enhanced security protocols and facilities, integrated indoor air quality monitoring units and new furnishings, amongst other things.
Smith also said paper files were being removed from the current building each week, but they were part of the problem. The union was told it would take 45 weeks to remove and clean the files, but some of them have mould.
“We have persons who are out for a year, persons who are on medication for life, so therefore we have to be thinking how best we can go about representing the workers,” Smith noted. (AD)
