This island’s two largest trade unions and Government could be on a collision course related to public sector wages.
The National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) and the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) are not near to agreement for a hike in wages for thousands of public officers who have been on a wage freeze for over nine years.
The NUPW is asking for a 23 per cent increase while the BWU is seeking 15 per cent for those public officers they represent. It is not clear what the other major unions and associations drawn from the Barbados Union of Teachers, the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union, the Police Association and the Barbados Nurses Association are seeking for their members.
Next Monday is the deadline for Government’s negotiators to get back to the NUPW with an updated position. Yesterday NUPW general secretary Roslyn Smith said she hoped “commonsense will prevail”.
That union’s president Akanni McDowall said since their last meeting in December the NUPW had not received any word from Government. (LK)
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