IT SEEMS IT WILL be just a matter of time before the practice of non-nationals renting out their duty-free status to Barbadians buying products in a number of Bridgetown stores comes to an end.
From what Cou Cou has heard, Government officials have been quietly questioning why certain businesses have been allowing these people to “work” in their stores offering these unique services for between $10 to $25, depending on the item being purchased.
For those who don’t know about this, here is how it works – after a shopper identifies a pair of shoes, a bag, or similar consumer product that carries a local price and duty-free price, the non-national approaches the person asking if they would like assistance in buying the item.
If the item costs $80 duty-free and a local price of $110, for example, the non-national would offer to purchase the item for the shopper and often ask to be paid half the difference of the savings made for doing this task.
Most of these non-nationals are stationed in specific stores and are known to the staff, some of whom sometimes directs the customer to them to ensure they can get the sale.
Some people have suggested that stores tend to ignore the presence of these individuals because at the end of the day they ensure shoppers spend money in the store through the use of this loophole in the regulations regarding the purchasing of duty-free items.
How soon officials will move in and shut these people down is not known. But Cou Cou will keep you informed about this.
Boss lady from hell
HELP US GET rid of our mean boss.
That, essentially, is what workers at a Government department are calling for.
The workers complain that their boss has a poor management style and her word on an issue is the only word that counts. After she comes to work in the morning, she avoids further contact with staff by using another entrance during the day.
The staffers alleged that recently a new staffer came from another organisation to take up a promotion, but the boss had different ideas and now has the person doing donkey work in the department. They are claiming the boss told the Personnel Administration Department that she will deploy her staff as she sees fit.
The staffers further claimed that a number of people were reassigned in the department under the guise of training but no one was training them to do the work.
They believe the boss lady is behaving so high-handedly because she may feel threatened as she is not as qualified as some of her staff.
The staffers want someone else to come in, look at what is happening in the department and put someone in place who can better relate to them.
Broke or stuck?
IS GOVERNMENT BROKE or are they just going through a real bad cash flow problem?
These are the questions being asked daily by taxpayers owed their income tax refunds, businesses owed VAT refunds, pharmacists, suppliers to the hospital, and now temporary workers.
Word reaching Cou Cou is that some of these temporary workers have not been paid since December and can’t hear any word about when they will.
Cou Cou has also been told that a number of recently retired civil servants have not received their gratuity as yet. Again, Cou Cou is calling on Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler to nip these rumours in the bud by addressing these payment issues directly.