Government Senator Roshanna Trim believes that too many workers in Barbados “are still falling through the cracks because they
lack contracts”.
She voiced concern about the issue yesterday in the Upper Chamber while contributing to debate on the Protection of Wages Bill, 2026.
Trim, who is a trade unionist at the Barbados Workers’ Union, also asserted that they were some employers who behaved as if they were “a law unto themselves”.
She welcomed the new legislation on wages, submitting that “if you perform your duties honestly and faithfully, you should receive every single dollar that you have earned” on time.
On the issue of written contracts, she noted that the Employment Rights Act “contemplates contracts of employment and establishes rights and obligations arising from the employment relationship”.
“Yet, despite our legislative framework, there remain employers who continue to engage workers without providing clear written terms and conditions, and so too many workers begin employment with nothing more than a verbal promise,” she complained.
“They are told when to report to work, what they will be paid, and perhaps . . . when they might be paid. But there is nothing that actually follows what is set out, both now in this legislation, and also in the Employment Rights Act (ERA).
“And so when disputes arise, those workers are immediately placed at a disadvantage without the written terms. Any disagreement over anything like wages, hours of work, overtime, leave period, deductions become very difficult to resolve because it really is a he say she say conversation.”
Trim said this mean that workers “are trying to prove what is agreed, and that imbalance undermines dignity for the persons that this legislation seeks to protect”.
She also flagged the continuing culture among some employers “who believe that the law is optional”.
The senator made it clear to employers that the ERA was not merely a guide, neither would the Protection of Wages Act be a mere a suggestion, rather than binding legislation that employers are obligated to follow.
“I wish to inform all those within the sound of my voice that there is no code, there is no policy that an employer can offer you that supersedes or is higher than the law of Barbados,” she underscored.
“They are bound to it, and so employers are not a law unto themselves in the same way that we as employees must abide by the policies that they provide us with for work that align with the laws of Barbados.”
Her words were directed to bosses who establish their own workplace rules, disregard statutory obligations and “expect workers to accept whatever conditions they offer to them”. (SC)