The three branches of KFC Barbados at which workers staged industrial action on Friday remain closed to the public.
A prohibition has been placed on those locations and while they are closed, workers will suffer no recriminations or loss of income as remedial work is being undertaken. They will also be paid for the time they were off the job on Friday.
In reporting to the media after a meeting at the Labour Office in Warrens, St Michael, on Saturday morning, Barbados Workers’ Union general secretary Toni Moore hailed it as a victory, but noted it took some time to reach agreement.
“We had to spend significant time during the 15-hour period demonstrating and forcing the point …that workers were in fact in imminent danger, not because of one issue or two issues standing alone, but the many issues that they have been enduring and reporting over time at the KFC,” she explained.
“The outcome of that is that if customers try to access services from the Hastings [Christ Church], Warrens [St Michael] and Oistins [Christ Church] branches where the issues were highlighted yesterday, they will not be able to do so because there is a prohibition notice that is put on those particular locations.
“There is going to be remedial work that is ongoing to address the challenges that were highlighted during yesterday and while that remedial work is ongoing, the stores would remain closed.”
Moore said there were “challenges” at other branches of KFC, but during the meeting, management had undertaken to “exercise its utmost effort” to correct those problems before similar action had to be taken.
On Friday, staff invoked Section 104 of the Safety and Health at Work Act which gives them the right to refuse work, or to remove themselves from conditions of work that put them and their colleagues in imminent danger.
She commended the staff, many of whom were young and in the workplace for the first time. She reminded workers that it was important to stand up at times, because in failing to do so, you miss the opportunity to not only get what is yours but to preserve the rights you already have. (SAT)
