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Caribbean Workers Must Unite

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Submitted by Mahogany Coconut Think Tank and Watchdog Group
Ralph 'Bruggadung' Johnson had to issue a clarification statement after he accused Bajan workers of being lazy and inefficient.
Ralph ‘Bruggadung’ Johnson had to issue a clarification statement after he accused Bajan workers of being lazy and inefficient.

We are not surprised that the workers of Barbados in particular and the Caribbean in general, are being accused of being “lazy” and basically non-productive. It is not unusual for those who have built up fortunes on the backs of the workers, to unleash their venom on the same workers. It demonstrates that the employer class in the Caribbean is functioning as masters and is not interested in anything other than their bottom lines.

The entire Caribbean was built on the backs of cheap labour (slavery) and those who have inherited this wealth believe it is their divine right. Unfortunately, the Black political managerial class is so spineless, that it refuses to put the historical facts of our development on the front burner of national discourse.

We note progressive citizens, who entire mainstream politics, quickly distance themselves from their activist platform and become consumed by petty party politics. This allows the inheritors of the wealth to continue their focus on building financial empires without being concerned with broad national development policy or goals.

Those who “have made it”, understandably, do not want to rock the boat. The truth is that in terms of real poverty, the poorest workers/people in the Caribbean are the descendants of slaves. This means that Afro Caribbean citizens although the majority in places such as Barbados, do not control the commanding heights of the economy. The current onslaught on the workers and the unions is a direct effort, in our opinion, to exploit the workers and eventually destroy the trade union movement. The current economic health of the region is fertile ground for such machinations.

We maintain those earning wages below $350. BDS. (175 USD) per week, are at the poverty level, taking into consideration the cost of living in most Caribbean countries. Coupled with these low wages, we still have many households without proper indoor plumbing facilities. In at least one country, we are aware that some schools don’t have what are commonly known as “water toilets”. This means some children have no access to a proper health environment at home or school.

Furthermore there have been no considerable efforts at progressive worker participation and the hopes of economic enfranchisement have not materialized.

When we examine the above, the Mahogany Coconut Group is obligated to speak the uncomfortable truth. Workers of the Caribbean unite!

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101 responses to “Caribbean Workers Must Unite”

  1. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    “The entire Caribbean was built on the backs of cheap labour (slavery) and those who have inherited this wealth believe it is their divine right. ”

    You mean the whole world was built on the backs of cheap labour. There will always be low paying jobs, this is a reality that many of us must face. If we continue to live in the past we will never move forward in the future. Whatever system of government a country adopts, there will be always be people at the lower end of the economic graph. No system is perfect.

    Take the unions for example, the union bosses drive around in the most expensive luxury cars, live in upper class neighbourhoods, own many homes and their children are exposed to the best education has to offer. They do not live like the people they represent. They do not earn low wages like the people they represent.

    “It demonstrates that the employer class in the Caribbean is functioning as masters and is not interested in anything other than their bottom lines.”

    Mahogany Coconut…….Hello are you a businessman? If you are do you adhere to the above principles? Are you still in business?

    What many are doing is supplementing their low wages with side jobs, services and cottage businesses. They keep their low paying jobs until they can move on to better things. By the way have you checked out these low wage earners homes? Do many of them own plasma TVs? The latest blackberry phones? The latest brand name clothing?

    Can you imagine if we were a barter economy? How many you think will survive? Look Mahogany bird until you can find another alternative we will ALWAYS have people at the lower end of the economic scale.

    “In at least one country, we are aware that some schools don’t have what are commonly known as “water toilets”. This means some children have no access to a proper health environment at home or school.”

    Does water toilets stop children from learning? There are now dry toilets that are environmentally better so who needs water toilets? I am sure these schools have water to drink and wash hands. I am sure you came up without a water toilet at some time in your life. Did it kill you?

    Things take time to change and in some places it is slower. There are international organizations with funds that assist needy countries and schools. What is needed is someone to tap into these funds for projects like the one above. The only problem is that many schools do not see these funds after they have been disbursed and are still waiting.

  2. David Avatar
    David

    There will always be that tension between labour and capital. Those who employ capital will always pressure to maximize return. What is interesting is that we live in a world where the dynamic of employment has changed. The way how labour and capital interact will have to keep changing.

  3. anon Avatar
    anon

    “you shouldn’t waste a recession” this is the mantra of those in the private sector. All the efforts made in the pass for workers are being eroded, such as an 8 hr work day, a lunch break, sickness leave, vacation pay etc. Dr. Hon. Esther Byer Suckoo started the first attack, that I’m aware, by stating that Christians in the workforce are resulting in poor productivity and work ethic in the workplace. The next was Ralph ‘Bruggadung’ Johnson who called all workers in Barbados lazy, and thirdly we have John Williams – Barbados Private Sector Association, calling on legislation which is against workers interest.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @Anon

    When Errol Barrow referred to the civil service as an army of occupation what did he mean?

    When the National Productivity council and responsible stakeholders in civil society suggest we need to improve productivity what do they mean?

  5. ac Avatar
    ac

    Well said Mahogany and what is more amazing is that some of our own would happily agree. this is nothing new the Term “lazy Blacks” was an effective tool in days of slavery one which cause blacks to feel a sense of shame! guilt! and less worthy! .It is sad to see that that term has again raised its ugly head by those who fortunes seem to be dwindling because of the economic downturn but instead of facing reality these elitist find it easier to demean blacks and take us back to a time best to be forgotten.

  6. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Yes workers of the Caribbean unite, all you hard working, dependable, honest, tax paying unite with your lazy brethren against the slings and arrows of mr Johnson. How absurd Just because some may not like what the man said doesn’t make it untrue. We all know them the people who collect a salary, and conveniently forget what they are being paid for . Everyday in this arena someone is complaining about a judge, politician etc who are underperforming. Does anybody think it is different in the private sector? Quit killing the messenger, on behalf of the users.

  7. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    We agree that Caribbean workers need to unite but not under current leadership. People like Trotman and his ilk have carried workers into a dead end. Unions have to stop relying on authoritarian systems.

  8. David Avatar
    David

    Interesting to her John Williams (head of the private sector group) outlining a simple strategy government should put in place as a matter of priority. The irony is that there are all policy positions which we have been preaching n BU for years. The need for workers to become MORE productivity is a real world reality and has nothing to do with what has occurred back in the day.

    @Baffy

    Did you hear John?

    Fast track legislation to support business facilitation which single out forex earning/saving projects etc?

    Barbadians have this phobia to invoke the race phobia based on the messenger on not the business logic.

  9. anon Avatar
    anon

    @ David

    David a lot of generalizations are being thrown around about workers whether they be Christians, or of the civil service, ( or politicians – 🙂 ) and I don’t think it is fair on the workforce to paint everyone with the same brush. I prefer to think that the system suffers from poor customer service and not really understanding the importance of, and therefore appreciating the customer. I don’t think some workers make the connection between a customer spending money and how it impacts on the organisation they are working for. If they do, then they seem to be some form of “passive resistance” to the system, and as a customer you notice it when interacting with workers in certain places, and this is where the employer comes in. I often believe that the manner in which workers in an organisation respond to their job, is a reflection of the employer and his managerial team. More often than not workers go the extra mile for employers who threat them well.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Anon

    Agree with your last comment and of course it is a generalisation but it is up to respective businesses to measure where they are falling short and ensure good performance metrics are put in. In the case of unionise environments there is too much oneupmanship practised and despite what the social partnership suggest there is high mistrust between the stakeholders.

  11. sashquash Avatar
    sashquash

    Look idiots it is time you recognize that too many bajans want everything free. The port workers are spoilt and unscrupulous. Self employed do not want to pay taxes but want free state services. Leave Ralf alone. Iam black and think also that too many of us have grown lazy. Look dishonesty is also on the rise here too. Burglaries, robberies, thefts, frauds, and common trickery are the order of the day. You are also raping and molesting the young boys and girls from ages 03 and onwards. This nation is becoming a place of thugs and limers who know not God.
    Brugadung is so correct. I have watched criminals eat down Baxters Road, Bay Street and Bridgetown in general. All day long gangs of limers, vagabonds, ruffians, hooligans, thieves, robbers and gangsters prowl the town. We have lost our way. These fields and hills will soon not be our own. Remember ‘Pride and Industry’. Stop the political crap and get reallllllllllll

  12. ac Avatar
    ac

    EWB comments should not be interpret as “lazy” EWB comments were not genrated by greed and selfishness but as a motivatorand having t best interest of the country However most black understand the WHYS and the rationale behind such a term”lazy blacks” used by the elitist and find it offensive. The elitist motivator is one ofselfishness and greed and not for the good of the country .Unlike EWB who understood that our progress was inpart heavily relied on self

  13. anon Avatar
    anon

    There is truly nothing new under the sun.

    During slavery it is said that slaves in Barbados found it difficult to run away from the “system” and couldn’t actively resist, so what they would do is try to damage the equipment used on the plantation as a measure of passive resistance which would frustrate the system. This of course augurs well unless you have slave masters like those in Egypt who despite the presiding conditions demanded that the Jews make bricks without straw. You know what, the Pharaoh referred to the Jews as being lazy like the Bajans so he imposed these measures.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    @Anon

    Forgot to mention that we know full harmony will never exist between labour and capital BUT while labour must be protected we cannot forget that it is the owners of capital who have to be encouraged to invest in a climate where confidence is promoted. It seems nowadays we have to adopt an adversarial approach which does nothing to enhance the opportunities for workers.

  15. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    It is so difficult to understand why some people cant get over the past, when a businessman today with his money on the line says lazy worker he means lazy worker regardless of race , gender, faith or sexual orientation but some people all they hear is lazy black man….. give it up,….. you and your ilk and your jaded view is what is holding up progress in Barbados, mired in your self righteousness you will be the death of the economy shame on you

  16. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    It is really interesting how the workers are being targeted as the scapegoats for the current economic ills facing this country.
    Workers are not slaves or serfs and have their rights just like the controllers of capital whether financial or material.
    Low productivity among “Workers” can only be explained through the defective prism of incompetent piss-poor management. Workers look to their “bosses” to lead by example.
    Management in Barbados is one big set of jokers; many of them especially in the public sector are pure lackeys and bullshitters put in charge primarily of their family ties, social and political connections and very rarely for the competence and effectiveness to motivate and train workers.

    In any event why should workers, whether in the private or public sector, go over and beyond the “norm” to increase productivity when there are little or no incentive systems in place to encourage them? Why should they increase their so-called productivity when they will not be sharing pari passu with the owners or managers in those gains?

    Until proper and fair incentives are put in the work place and people are put in management positions based on merit and abilities to motivate, cooperate and to lead by example then we are just spinning top in mud and using the poor workers as an excuse to implement draconian measures to futilely attempt to correct a defective economic system primarily resulting from poor leadership.

    We only have to look at the current quality of leaders both in the government and private sector and see where most of our structurally defective management problems exist.

    Let us use our justice system as an “excellent’ example starting with the AG, DPP, and CJ.
    We will not even mention what is in the Cabinet that should be full of true workers and leaders of the people but instead is full of parasites undermining the whole governance structure.

  17. anon Avatar
    anon

    @ David.

    Agreed, but you can’t go around denigrating your entire workforce, and then expect to encourage these owners of capital to invest in the island. I don’t think that the powers that be are seeking a cause, but prefer to react to, and threat the symptoms.

  18. ac Avatar
    ac

    how can one expect the best of the best from any people or person by demeaning them. it is like shooting one self in the foot it is obviouss that a negative reaction would be the result. .the Term lazy blck has become a normality buy those who have been using it and acceptable standard for pushing barbados forward . however it couldn.t be further from the truth as it brings out resentment to whom those words have targeted and spills over in an economy which can no longer afford to be depressed

  19. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Understand your point but the issue at play here is more complicated. We have a heavy unionized group which contrast starkly with a non existent entrepreneur class. This is a dynamic which we need to explore; the ethos of the employer employee workspace.

  20. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ sashquash | July 31, 2013 at 9:28 AM |
    “Brugadung is so correct. I have watched criminals eat down Baxters Road, Bay Street and Bridgetown in general.”

    He is NOT! Mr. Johnson might be misguided but certainly not right.

    If Mr. Johnson is prepared to widen his definition of “WORKERS” to include the thieving lying white collar criminal that sit around Board tables and collude with frauds and swindlers to practically steal from the naïve savers and poor pensioners without facing justice for the willful and deliberate acts then we would be also prepared to go along to some extent with his general castigation of an entire lot of defenseless ordinary Barbadians many of whom themselves were robbed blind by these “management class” of criminals.

    When he calls for the exposure and charging of these CLICO white collar criminals including the Board to face the justice system then we will listen to his ilk.
    Again, a classic example of attacking an easy vulnerable target. A brand of social paedophilia.

  21. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Miller
    Well said!
    EXACTLY THE POINT,

    What lazy workers what?,
    A worker (employee) is only as lazy as the idiots in charge allows, encourages, pays, and condones.

    Shiite man! If some jackass boss is going to pay you a salary (and a good one at that, since they are pissing scared of Caswell and Sir Roy) why the hell would a brass bowl Bajan work any harder than they are required?

    Steupssss…. No wonder Brugadung feels that the problem with sport is that the athletes are too lazy too…

    The problem is ALWAYS one of leadership and management.

  22. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Negative reaction??? you are already getting a negative reaction that is the problem no praise or raise is going to make these leopards change their spots. Praise should be heaped on those who deserve it .I remember when we first came to Canada there was no real welfare system to speak of you got off the boat running and god forbid if you took assistance if you were physically and mentally able to work Family and friends would treat you like a dead beat. Today that has all changed, it seems like the norm is to take it as your right , rather than reserved for the ones that need it and laugh at the idiots that work hard for their money. In a room full of people with no supervisor some people would work extra hard most work for what their paid but a small group are along for the ride. Quit blaming bosses quit blaming the past and expose these sycophants for what they are.

  23. David Avatar
    David

    Hasn’t the BWU confirmed that it has worked with Harris Paints (Bruggadung’s company) to implement a performance management system which encourages high productivity and has allowed that company to be competitive. We need to understand what the man is saying.

  24. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    It is staggering that in this post-independence era in Barbados that there are persons on this BU blogsite who continue to unnecessarily and illogically accept a very degrading pathetic low class status in social life in this country and all other countries that is called – worker – by virtually every living adult human being everywhere.

    One of the very abhorrent things about it too is that with many of the real educational opportunities available to these same persons to help build and develop further much of what they came and found in the national social educational sectors in this and some other countries, they still continue to wallow in the political sociological tragedy that some of them must see themselves, and some other persons wheresoever too must view them, as being workers; and that they and those same others must construe it too that to be functioning as workers must be the unalloyed natural characteristic roles that they have to accept and perform through out their respective earthly sojourns.

    While it is quite unfortunate that persons of the ilks of the same Ralph Johnson, Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo, etc, have recently been found apparently to be talking down to many of these workers in their relevant criticisms of them, it is the more telling than that that these workers – aided and abetted by unionist fools like Roy Trotman and influenced by political jack o lanterns like Owen Arthur of 30 000 jobs idiocy – still see themselves as reaching the pinnacle of their lives in commerce, industry, investment and finance in Barbados, when they become workers.

    Well, the majority of workers are at the bottom of the social ladder in Barbados for, yes, the damned despicable causes of oligarchic political exploiation, oligarchic political economic dispossession, oligarchic social marginalization and the real political features, strategies and systems that really support them it, but yes too for the very damned causes that they themselves too have determined that where they are at is their essential lot in social life and do not seem to think that they can develop to higher states of existence than being workers in such a treacherous work system/culture in the political industrial realms, when they can really actualize greatermore than where they unseemly remain at, whatever the percieved political and other challenges, present or to come.

    The fact is that the work system/culture is a part of this long running millenial macro universal cyclescrew that involves political business, commercial and financial activities being at the forefront of many social changes throughout world histories.

    The fact too is that this work system/culture only became the dominant and vile political exploiation approach used by monarchies, oligarchies, and other tyrants to help create these massive class and status divisions and differentials that have been produced across many different human social existences in the 18th and 19 th centuries in Europe and in many other parts of this world; and only did it come about after the great dialectical political processes that were taking place then in those places had farcically compromisingly settled on the so-called capital labour dialectic model, to the great disfavour of the latter.

    So it is clear that this work system/culture is just a couple distances ahead from the largely evolved parts of that same cyclescrew – the once dominant and horiffic dehumanizing manorial/ feudal serf system and the colonial enslavement system.

    No wonder then that the process of emancipation is a continuing mass human force for greater freedom and liberty from the oppressive exploitative work system/culture in Barbados and elsewhere and a continuous mass human force too for greater freedom and liberty to grow and develop into greater states of inecessary ndividualism, voluntarism and association in business, ownership and exchange in Barbados and across the world.

    PDC

  25. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    A days work for a days pay…heresy, skewer mr Johnson for suggesting it.

  26. Sign Here Avatar
    Sign Here

    Wunna dont know that during a recession works have to work harder and longer so that those at the top can maintain their plush lifestyles?

  27. Sign Here Avatar
    Sign Here

    take this example, JADA laying-off construction workers (not as busy as one time) but Philip Tempro, the managing director still could keep 20 polo ponies home at him in Buttals. You imagine that in good conscience you could send home people, distrurb that people whole famaily and then turn around and keep and maintain polo ponies costing thousands of dollars per pony per month?

  28. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    what should he do with the ponies Sir? turn them into corned beef?

  29. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ lawson | July 31, 2013 at 11:30 AM |

    No one in his right mind would gainsay, in principle, what Mr. Johnson is highlighting; i.e., a serious lack of productivity that is retarding the further socio-economic development of the country and what is urgently required to transform it into a more competitive player in this fast moving international marketplace with no more protectionist umbrella to hide under as was the case of the dead king sugar or the halcyon days of nostalgia tourism in old time quaint Bimshire.

    What we are concerned about is Mr. Johnson’s narrow perspective (despite his subsequent attempt to widen the analysis) he brought to bear on the problem.
    Is he including in the “High Cost of Wages” the massive salaries, commissions, consulting fees, perks and cost of providing high-powered Mercedes Benz to drive to Champers or the Hilton for extended lunches?

    Aren’t managers themselves ‘workers in the corporate ant colony’ too including Board members and other Alpha primates who see themselves not as primus inter pares but as barons and corporate gods when walking among the lesser mortals called workers?

    Basically doing business in Bim is no more than an exercise in managers and owners living above their corporate means with champagne taste in unjustified rewards and mauby productivity assigned only to the real workers.
    Instead of system of reward based on quantity of input and quality of output we have a incestuous corporate culture that feeds on the unproductive waste of one another like crabs in a barrel with both black and white stripes as ample proof for easy identification and assignment of blame for the sea of shit the country is in.

  30. ac Avatar
    ac

    What is amazing thatthese fat cats can openly make such dastardly statements and not be held accountable.believing that making a a selfserving retraction instead of a public apology to the barbadian workers woud be enough. only in these small islands would such statements be handed with kid gloves and we all know why…………….AS for the ponies the owner can lead by example and PRIVATISE

  31. sashquash Avatar
    sashquash

    People’s Democratic Congress —- Please Disappear Clowns. I am tired of this untidy bunch of far out word calling empty bags. Leave us alone. Do you realise not that all of you lost your deposits last elections. Soundly rejected and embarrassed you must be if you have shame. I shall send your man some bags of shame. I lump you with David Come Along, David De Ny and Casual Frankloss

  32. Yagga Rowe Avatar
    Yagga Rowe

    leave PDC alone
    PDC no trouble to you
    everyone has stake/say in matters
    who you to diss PDC

  33. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Millar….One thing I never worried about was what the other guy had as long as I was paid fairly for the work I did. I am not a socialist what the owner has is his, what he makes is his if I am paid what I wanted, what concern it is of mine how many ponies he has All I know is the owner is taking the big risk, and gets the big rewards if it is a success. But if it fails he loses I lose the economy loses and if it means some streamlining has to be done to make it a success so be it.
    Rarely will an employer release a good employee, only as a last resort, the problem is the line between good and bad employee has become blurred because anytime someone is let go whether justified or not the island is in shutdown, and everything suffers.

  34. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Thee are the words of Mahogany Coconut Think Tank and Watchdog Group from a recent post:

    “One of our greatest cultural problems is our approach to time. Buses run late, we get to work late and then we realise that thousands of man hours are lost because of this simple fact. Without a proper public transport system, it is virtually impossible to improve productivity. Hence, those who live in societies where things “run” on time, immediately realise the importance of organising their business in order to catch the train or bus that they need to get to a particular point. The result is that time is not lost and productivity is less threatened. We all recall when we used to get days off to attend test cricket! Nothing wrong with supporting our cricketers, but in those days during five day tests, the entire Caribbean came to a standstill. It was just the way we did things. Little did we realize the negative results of being five days behind our business while we enjoyed our cricket? We also enjoyed shopping days for Christmas. Imagine getting time off at the peak period of commercial activity.During carnival and other festivals, we are known to “fire de wuk’ while we party. Once again, there is nothing wrong with partying but we can no longer afford to fete for a whole week and expect productivity to rise.”

    Now contrast and compare that to Bruggadung statement.

    Anyway Mahogany Court while you busy talking about productivity and Christmas days off, folks in the metropoles are pushing the concept of “Work Life Balance” including flexi-time and a day to watch cricket. In many cases there is no need to rush to work as you can seldom be late.

  35. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    The truth is that many hard working Bajans live outside Bim. They have the realistic view that bigger, richer Countries and Companies are in a better position to pay top $$$$$$$$$$$$. When I migrated to Canada my standard of living more than doubled overnight, I was doing the same job with a bit more work it is true.

    The racial angle taken here is not necessary,since my Black friends that own businesses in Bim complain about low productivity and Unions blocking progress. I agree that owners can be greedy and I certainly dont condone anyone who lays off good people while maintaining a lavish lifestyle involving horses. That is moral bankruptcy! However, those “workers” who have a bad attitude to productivity MUST learn the hard way if they cant figure out reality.

  36. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    As long as Johnson is not telling the workers in Bim if they work harder, longer and be more productive they will go to heaven because a place is already being prepared for them, with that said, Bajans need to learn the art of working for themselves, growing their own food, be self-sufficient and independent of greedy employers who can be very lazy themselves. It has become cultural and destructive on the island the notion that you must be someone’s worker until the day you die, that’s slave minded rubbish, you have a brain for a reason use it’s creative skills.

  37. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ ac
    “What is amazing thatthese fat cats can openly make such dastardly statements and not be held accountable…”
    ***********
    We can ALWAYS trust you to be wrong.
    Brugga is correct in his analysis of Bajan employees…. WE ALL KNOW THAT.

    The problem, as Miller so well puts it, is that the same is true of the managers, and in fact, the OVERALL BLAME must be theirs…
    …who has the responsibility AND AUTHORITY to make and implement decisions?
    ….who hired the ‘lazy’ workers?
    …who pays them the same as the hard workers? …and who (apart from Lawson 🙂 ) would continue to work hard as shiite when getting the same pay as the shirkers…?
    …who gives in to the anti-productivity demands of the unions?
    ….who has the role of motivating staff?
    ……workers? NO! Brugadung and his big friends….

    …so YES! Bajans are lazy as shiite…BUT THAT is NOT the root problem….merely a symptom of it.
    The problem is that the LEADERS and Managers of Barbados are incompetent Brass Bowls…..

  38. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Why is everything tinged, GREEDY EMPLOYERS …. people run businesses who are fair and honest both black and white…. you are destructive to the island with your outdated slave minded baggage

  39. David Avatar
    David

    @Bushie

    If we go by today’s press report Minister of Labour will be calling a forum soon to discuss how to improve productivity. Of course the polite way to say Bajan workers are slacking …lol.

  40. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Sorry BushTea not to be left out, it comes down to professionalism and pride I took the job, and I agreed on the pay to cry about it after would be shallow. If I came to your door to install electricity and for 3 days you watched me and another guy work hard while a 3rd sat on your couch and did nothing. When I gave you the bill showing 3 guys labour for three days you would be telling me no ffing way your paying for him

  41. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David | July 31, 2013 at 2:10 PM |

    Is the MoL trying to imply that the government’s underwritten NISE project has been an abject failure just like the Public Sector Reform movement and the Productivity Council which has nothing to show for its existence other than another useless appendage to give ‘sedentary’ jobs to politically connected mis-educated graduates?

    The Minister of Labour needs to lead by example and have the Heath & Safety at Work Act implemented and applied right across the workplace. She also has to get the Employment Rights Act up and running to ensure fairness to both employee and employer.

  42. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Are you equating service with productivity?

    @enuff

    Hopefully Mahogany will clarify the inconsistency.

  43. ac Avatar
    ac

    Yes bush tea and u can always trust bajans to get a kick in the ass and ask for another and another.

  44. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    which Bajans you talking about ….friends of Chris Brown?

  45. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    David

    Sorry, Williams is NOT one that I pay particular attention … Full marks for his appearance tho, typical White American styled executive.

    Here is the thing. Productivity is an Industrial engineering term which like efficiency (a thermodynamic term) has been co-opted by profiteers to sell their agenda which of course is tied to their personal bottom lines.

    If someone is to be productive, then their effort must be measurable.The offshoot of course is that their remuneration should be tied to their output ..

    HA, here is the kick. Lime sent home its call answering staff a few years ago because they were spending too much time serving individual calls. Lime was prepared to sacrifice quality for quantity (always in dilemma in Industrial engineering since one always impinges on the other). If payment to the staff was indeed tied to the number of call taken, lemme tell yah, people enough would have complained about the rush approach and lack of quality service that would have been on display.

    Take this model to Cheffette where staff pay would be based on the number of customers that they served … WOW. The management would get complaints from the STAFF that they were NOT performing as it would be Managements responsibility to bring the customers into the building so that the staff could make a living.

    Take it to the Government workers whose job for argument sake is to dig a trench and their pay would be tied to the length of the trench dug. Lemma tell yah, the trenches would be dug so fast that the Government would have to lay the staff off as there would be no more trenches to dig.

    The Productivity of the Productivity Council cannot be measured so perhaps their value to Barbados should be taken with a pinch of salt.

    This getting too long now … 🙂

  46. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David | July 31, 2013 at 2:44 PM |
    Barbados is today primarily a “service” economy. Unless of course you want to send them (workers) back to the cane fields.

    The main measuring stick of productivity in a service-oriented economy is quality of service as measured and recorded in customer satisfaction and repeat business.
    We certainly can’t compete on material input costs as in manufacturing only on quality of output with the premium being excellent (reliable) service underscored by that old 1980’s buzz business productivity phrase “getting it right the first time”, (almost).

  47. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ lawson
    Professionalism is an affliction that is suffered by a decreasing number of Bajans. You actualy do sound to be badly affected. Come back home and work for a couple months and Bushie can assure you that you will be quickly cured… 🙂

    @ David
    A minister calling a forum…..hmmmmm have we heard of such before…? LOL Ha Ha muh belly

    @ Miller
    …skippa, what the donkey wrong with you? You are on the ball, hitting sixes and fours and making lots if sense….. YOU feel OK?
    …man yuh got Bushie offset….can’t find a thing to cuss you for on this thread…. LOL

    WAIT MILLER…. Um ain’t wunna that start the productivity council, the Public Sector Reform and NISE?
    ….the only three things more useless than the army…. Ha Ha …

    @ ac
    Hush.

  48. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Agree that we are a service economy BUT service is one of many measurables in a good performance management system.

  49. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Now le’ we speak about “efficiency” .. HA … What a scam. First, again, effort has to be “Measurable” and an efficient system is one that has NO waste… what goes in, comes out … 100%. Energy goes in (measurable) work is achieved (measurable).

    Now how the f#ck can any reasonable person compare such a system to a business… Stupse.

    In business, money goes in (investment) and Return on Investment comes out (personal profit), continuously until the investment is recovered and then some ie: you get out more than you put in. What the scampers are interested in is having people believe that it is okay to measure the money that is put into the company (measured in $) and compare that to the effort that is shown by the employees (only measurable as per my earlier post) and the two measurements are NOT comparable. Efficiency is a Jack Ass term when applied to the business context

  50. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    It’s time for greedy employers to realize they are not going to become millionaires and billionaires off the backs of workers anymore, besides, employers in Europe and North America now use workers from countries such as the Middle East and Far East, Philippines etc, where they can continue to exploit workers by paying them slave wages of anywhere between 30 cents to $1 dollar an hour, slave wages, most internet jobs are outsourced to these countries.

    In the case of Barbados and the Caribbean, they will have to be mindful going forward and do not once again become the exploited.

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