Yesterday morning a number of workers at Purity Bakeries Ltd staged a work stoppage following the termination of one of their colleagues.
Head of the Unity Workers’ Union Caswell Franklyn told the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that a worker was fired last Friday on the grounds of a conflict of interest.
Franklyn said: “This morning the workers at Purity came out in solidarity with one of their colleagues that got fired on Friday. He was fired on the pretext that he had a conflict of interest because he worked at another bakery. They are using the pretext that he worked elsewhere; he is not working elsewhere right now so even if he had a conflict of interest, it no longer exists.”
Repeated efforts to reach Franklyn were unsuccessful.
However, in a statement, the Barbados Workers Union’s (BWU) deputy director of industrial relations, Dionne Bowen, said the workers went back to work when they found out that the BWU was no longer investigating the matter that led to the worker’s termination.
“In December, an issue involving an employee of Purity Bakeries Limited was being investigated and subsequently became a disciplinary matter. As occurs from time to time, the employee in question, who is still a member of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), decided to exercise his right to alternate representation and for over a month the BWU has not been treating to the matter.
“This morning, after being informed that the matter was no longer being handled by the BWU, the colleagues who turned out in a show of solidarity returned to their workstations just before 9:00 a.m.” (SB)
