The Barbados Workers Union is waiting and watching after exposing a large construction company’s alleged mistreatment of migrant workers.
“On Wednesday, we brought to the attention of the Social Partnership a very troubling occurrence, the fact that migrant workers in Jada Group were being undermined,” said general secretary Toni Moore during a media briefing earlier today at National Heroes Square, The City, adding they also had concerns about Infra Construction, which is part of the group.
Moore said the issue surrounded the living conditions of the workers, who are from India, Cuba and Colombia. She said it was those workers who approached the BWU to highlight their conditions, and thanks to some of their members being multilingual, they were able to communicate.
Moore said the relevant authorities had more than enough to take action, but the union would be watching and, should things not go as it thinks they should, would be ready to escalate.
“What the Barbados Workers Union calls for clearly is that no more public projects will be awarded to this group unless the full information was known and understood by the authorities and they were sure, therefore, that JADA is coming to the business of public contracts with clean hands. I suspect not,” she said.
Moore said the union was prepared to “let the authorities move swiftly without additional pressure, noises or distractions” but assured, should they not be satisfied, they would “make good on the instruction that has been given by the Executive Council of the Barbados Workers’ Union since last year”. (CA)