Submitted by Derico Charles
Submission must be made for a request to the Minister of Environment & Drainage, Dr Denis Lowe, to make a statement relating to the SEVERANCE PAY of the Drainage Workers who were sent home at the end of 2013, especially those who have worked past 2 years continuously.
Almost two weeks after sending home these people via a phone call, at a meeting on the 10th January, 2014 at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre at Two Mile Hill, it was announced by the Permanent Secretary that all the workers would be given their dues. This is two months now and no further communication has been made to anyone of them regarding their severance payments.
One of the things that hurt these men and women, mothers and fathers the most -was being dismissed by a phone call- with no letter of dismissal –no lieu pay– no “green-paper” to receive unemployment benefit- no vacation pay and no representation– they were only told “…Until further notice….” And they were not even formally requested to attend the meeting that took place. Many attended through word of mouth. Indeed this was a contemptuous slap in the face by the Government of Barbados that many of these workers and their children will never forget.
The Prime Minister indicated that the unemployed workers would receive separation packages which were now being quantified by the Ministry of Environment, “and will engage the attention of Parliament not too long from now”. The question to be asked is: How long is not too long? Is the quantification process taking place? Where is the justice in this country?
Prime Minister Stuart disclosed that Government would also put in place advisory mechanisms for the workers in case they needed advice on how to make effective use of their packages. He said that in addition to that, they have been made aware by the Minister of Labour, Dr. Byer Suckoo that there is still that $10 million training fund available and that there will be opportunities for training with a stipend attached and there is not all darkness ahead. He said that “there is some light and we intend to work with these men and women and help them to keep their lives together.”
Now tell me – after you have insulted a man, kicked him in his butt by abruptly dismissing him from your place, do you think he will really trust you again or want to come around your place? You kicked him out of your place and he had no time to pack- so if he does show up again all he will want is his belongings. So Minister Byer-Suckoo you won’t see the numbers for this training fund because there has been a high level of hurt and mistrust and $10 million in a fund means nothing to a man to whom you owe -for e.g, $10,000 or $15,000. And this forms part of the dignity of the average Barbadian.
During the meeting, Mr. Stuart thanked the laid-off employees for the excellent work they did over the past five years and described them as “a remarkable set of people who gave of their best in the programme”.
So if they have done so well, Mr. Prime Minister, give them their dues and do it now Sir!
After all the “lotta long talk” many of these workers are out there swimming the tide alone—begging, borrowing, and depending on a neighbour, a friend to survive- to eat -to send the children to school. So a statement to the media about a counselling desk and standing with the workers and yet you still have not given them from as little as- vacation pay to the most- their severance pay- means that you are only seeking to impress but have not expressed your moral responsibility to these people as a government. I implore you Sir, to act swiftly and stop hoping that these people forget your trickery.
I beg to submit that all this publicized “political grand-standing” and “political gimmickry” at the expense of vulnerable public servants who the government now see as just a set of people on a “programme” will contribute firmly to the final days of the ruling Democratic Labour Party’s governance. It appears that no one is fighting for the rights of these men and women of the now defunct Drainage Division under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment and Drainage. They seem to have been cast aside and forgotten after being subdued and sedated with “sweet talk”. But their cupboards are still bare and their bills are still running up in arrears. Their dignity has still been stripped and every day that they awake from a night of worry they have to find fresh courage.
Indeed this is grossly insulting and contemptuous to the intellect of the average Barbadian. The Democratic Labour Party has bonded themselves to another 15 years in the wilderness of politics when the next election bell is rung. That is the principle of deception. They have secured this through their dishonesty and mind games with the masses of Barbadians. You will be rewarded for your poor stewardship. That day is fast approaching!
Back in April 2013, Dr. Lowe also sought to dispel myths about the late payment of these same workers. He said it is totally untrue that the reason why members of the NEEP staff were not paid on time was as a result of the unavailability of funds or insufficient funds; totally untrue that Government was contemplating discontinuing the programme. He stressed that it was not Government’s intention to do so, because it remained committed to public servants at all levels of the public service to ensure that they remained employed, and emerged from this difficult economic situation.
In fact, the Minister revealed that over $9 million was approved in the Estimates that year for the execution of the NEEP programme, and another $2 million would be required later that year to ensure the work associated with the programme and the Drainage Division was completed.
Minister Lowe explained that the NEEP programme was originally designed to flow in two- year cycles. At the end of each of the two-year cycles the Ministry of the Environment and Drainage would submit documents to the Ministry of the Civil Service asking for a renewal and extension of the programme for another two years.
So the question is asked, “What happened to the monies allocated for this programme?
The question remains, “How were these monies spent?” “What happened to the government’s commitment and affirmation as it related to the Ministry of Environment & Drainage?”
Strangely enough, in all the five years –except for the inception in 2008, in the original design, workers no longer heard that what they were doing was a programme, but a functioning Division in the Ministry of Environment- The Drainage Division. What a profound technique in deception that was casted upon the vulnerable workers in order to send them home- to leave them like blind men in a dark room looking for a black cat!
The workers of the Drainage Division were dismissed contrary to the effects of the new Employment Act that was recently passed. That cannot be swept under the carpet. These actions are totally irresponsible and unacceptable and indeed NOT a National Initiative of Service Excellence- Not NISE!
This is a poor example of the efficiency of the Democratic Labour Party but a great example of a government that you can no longer trust.
That was what they voted for in 2013, to “get kick in the butt”. Go to the Constituency Councils, they will get assistance there.
“Back in April 2013, Dr. Lowe also sought to dispel myths about the late payment of these same workers. He said it is totally untrue that the reason why members of the NEEP staff were not paid on time was as a result of the unavailability of funds or insufficient funds; totally untrue that Government was contemplating discontinuing the programme. He stressed that it was not Government’s intention to do so, because it remained committed to public servants at all levels of the public service to ensure that they remained employed, and emerged from this difficult economic situation”……………………………………………………………..
I mean to say……… you people dont learn? After lying to you all that not a single job would be lost during the election, you all would believe a word coming out of Dr Lowe’s mouth? You all let these knuckle heads fool you twice. I feel your pain.
I believe all you have written above as a laid off worker passed by my home and told me some of what you said above. She was desperate and asked for help and I helped her.
This is what this Destructive Lying Party has reduced
a once proud Barbadians to………….begging. It is sad that for power, a party could sink to such lows. There has to be a reason why the DLP had to win back at all costs………lying and deceiving Barbadians. How do they sleep at nights?
pg 276 of the Approved Annual Estimates 2013-2014 under Head 73, Programmge 511, Sub Program 0501 says a lot.
the more things change…..
Just Observing
Barbados is running on lies and Liars , What will they do when the Truth shows up, ? oh yea,,,, Lie some more
Buying votes and giving an elector a job are election offences. There is a statute of limitation of one year, so the DLP had to keep those workers quiet until after the anniversary of the 2013 elections. That is why they were invited to the Lloyd Sandiford Centre to pacify them until that date passed. The rest was just empty promises.
The workers were deceived again and they fell for it again. It would appear that Bajans see nothing wrong in politicians lying.
It is absolutely wrong and wicked for this DLP government to have been sending home government workers.
These persons have mouths to feed and bills to settle.
DLP and BLP governments have been destroying much of this country.
Vote for CUP candidates in the Next Elections.
PDC
@PDC
Should private sector workers be sent home?
The workers were deceived again and they fell for it again. It would appear that Bajans see nothing wrong in politicians lying.
There is a certain amount of stupidity
Despite this and that certificate/degree
People are not learning from history
Its deja vu all over again -happened already
Information all around -tablet, computer / blackberry
Idle talk . gossip , gossipy , lips by Clairol, Hair by Remy
No vision , no focus heading straight back to slavery
Fool me three times three -shame on me
Paralyzed by cell phone radiation and technology
Sapping commonsense and creativity
Sapping care , love, /energies Sapping time, attention and money
Insane in the membrane -cognitively
70 % at UWEE
Jeopardizing progress in B’dos country
Never ending loyalty
to political party
Not separating forest from tree
Not knowing their ass from their knee
Not aware of the power they weave
Aiding and abetting hypocrisy
doing a good job of doing jobby
LIsten people !- Maureen Holder at CBC
is the poorest moderator in history !
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaagga –Strikes again
Caswell said:
“The workers were deceived again and they fell for it again. It would appear that Bajans see nothing wrong in politicians lying.”
Problem as i have been observing it for years is that the electorate actually used to admire these scum politicians and their parasite friends and saw nothing wrong with all the evil they were perpetrating against the same very taxpayers while enriching themselves and the minorities on the island, particularly if there was some little something in it for some of the electorate, alas, there will no longer be shit in it for them to admire and encourage, hope that changes their way of thinking now.
David,
What these times really call for, et al, is a new model of development for Barbados.
The PDC of the CUP does think it has been partially marking out the intellectual, political and other foundations for the emergence of such a model of development for this country.
Hence, as said before on here and elsewhere, a serious aspect of this model of development must be emergence and development of partnerships in both private and government sectors.
Such partnerships whereby those statuses that would have been once designated as workers, supervisors, managers, owners of current businesses (most multimember corporate business entities) would – in the future – under this model of development – evolve into designation of the statuses of partners of the partnership enterprises to come.
In this model of business, the entire memberships ( individually and collectively) of the partnerships would have the following:
1) They have will have sole legal rights to the partnerships;
2) They will have sole legal rights to determine the direction (to expand, maintain or increase membership, to dissolve, to increase, to decrease or maintain property holdings, to merge with or take over any others, to enter, to remain, to exit market, to pursue all options relative to maintaining the integrity of the partnerships, etc) in which each partnership goes;
3) They will have the legal rights to have critical say in the operations and functionings of these partnerships organizations;
4) They will have legal rights to all vital information pertaining to the affairs of each partnership;
5) They will have legal rights to determine and to decide ( and at the appropriate times and as set by the relevant laws and agreements that would be establishing such partnerships how and when (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) hitherto undistributed incomes, payments or transfers of the partnerships will be variously distributed among the members of the partnerships.
Decisions related to 2, 3 and 5 will be arrived at and taken in a democratic fashion ( with a majority voting or agreeing to effect such decisions).
So, David, it is not difficult to visualize and imagine that if such were applicable to the persons who were sent home from the Drainage Division, the NHC, the Post Office, from DaCosta Mannings, First Caribbean, Julie N, etc, such workers would not have been in such hapless positions as they were actually made by the businesses to be in.
Surely, these times call for certain innovate methodologies and approaches to be used in preventing our human social capital from further degradation and dedevelopment in this country.
PDC
@Well Well
Many feel comfortable accepting lies from politicians this is true. We bow down to politicians as if they are gods, why?
Its not the lies they accept its the piece of change put in their pockets that cause them to believe in the Johnny that cannot do know wrong. You still come many who believe in the ideals of both parties who will argue to thy kingdom come and will not denounce wrong doing but justify it…
David……it’s probably linked to,again, that slave mentality……..transference for want of a better word, seeing the politician as their savior, post slavery and post independence. People seem to always think they must believe in something or someone on earth, that applies to most everyone, but with Caribbean people, it is very destructive, with Bajans it has become particularly destructive given that most of the politicians are only interested in material, houses, money, cars and how much, which is never enough, they can acquire.
I don’t know if it is only me or did anyone else see something stupid in Government going to parliament for a supplementary of $4.5 million to put the Welfare Department in funds so that it can meet the demands of persons who were laid off by Government. Wouldn’t it have been better to place some of those workers on a reduced week and use the money to pay them? I am thinking that Government would have at least gotten something for the money that it is spending. Or am I just being silly?
Caswell
Nothing this bone headed government does make any sense. I thought the same. You don’t have money to pay wages but to give out as welfare. How smart is that? But did not the Stinkliar say in the last budget that supplementaries were a thing of the past. No more supplementaries…… He said to loud thumps from the other DLP MP’s. Now every week it is supplementary after supplementary.
Look what they have reduced a once proud nation to…… A nation of beggers.
Prodigal Son
You must understand the modus operandi of the DEMS. They were trained to lie effectively in order to achieve their ends: they can’t help it now. They know very well that the estimates were understated and that there would have to come with supplementaries but they were playing to the gallery at the time and it sounded good.
>
How many VOTE is 4.5 Million buy?
About the time of slavery ended the History of what we did as Bajans were removed from the books of history , archives and the book writers . It then leave us only to study what the old masters did and the black fools keep holding on ,they lived and did to keep some slaves in a mental check,
Once the truth is written on what happen, and how we came in as land owners , PLANTATIONS OWNERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS , The younger people will see we need not look back at slave history to make grades , But to look at out self ,and what we did to bring this Nation to where we are today .How come from about 1840 till 2014 all we have to look at is COW ? Like we all depends on him, and what he do or dont do , or hire for work ,
Take a look at this Bajan
William T. Shorey (1859 – 1919) was a late 19th Century American whaling ship captain known to his crew as the Black Ahab. He was born in Barbados July 13, 1859 and spent his life at sea. He became the only black captain operating on the west coast of the United States in the late-1880s and 1890s. He obtained his certification in 1885. @ I got that from face book posted by a Moor .
He can not be the only Person in all the years till now.
So until we can see our self in history we will have to keep looking at these fraud ass COWs and Hams.
Lets get our truth, in our History Back and move forward with some pride.
Put the Man who brought lard oil to Barbados, Violet Beckles Grand father, Who bought the Plantations when whites were selling and running from low sugar prices because of the WW1 and WW2, 1926 to 1980, Who open food shops , Hotels for Sailors from England to some, Who Help/work with the Barbados Government to get land for Public Housing for the Bajans,
Beatrice Henry , Who then was crooked by the Estate of maybe the World Most Massive Fraud By the BLP then the DLP ,
How you think we got in this BS mess today ,
COW out there now looking to deal with Kendal Plantation we hold the deed for , So Buyer keep top eye open and ask Questions,
Let them Keep UWI , until some one there can teach the truth and not taking your money for a degree in lies,
We have what ever we talk off on BU ,,,When ever you all ready ,, We done , We will give you the answers for FREE.
It is even more unbelievable when this jokey gov’t gine tell us that Barbados ecomonic problems are due to the global recession only. I want to tell DEM which part of the global recession told DEM to hire workers knowing full well they will have to fire them in the short term. Which part of the global recession told DEM to run current account deficits for not 1 or 2 but 5 consecutive years by not small amounts but buy $500m and more in some years!!!!. This DEM gov’t is truly descending into madness!!!!. I mean D gov’t know they are at the point that they have to borrow to pay salaries for DEM to hire more workers…..ABJECT STUPIDITY AND INCOMPETENCE!!!!! The DEMS are clearly running this country down into the ground to fortify their position and throwing simple economic sense through the window. Then again there might be hope for these workers !!!!…. according to Dennis Kellman they are being prepared for permanent employment ( as if they were not hoping for this while working for gov’t) Need i say more about abject stupidity and throwing sense through the window !!!!!!!!!!!
Yagga Rowe
It’s catching on. Great.
We attack politicians for lying and rightly so. In my experience lying riddles this society at all levels. It comes with the title ‘Pharisee’ so that we become ‘living lies’ to ourselves. In many cases, it’s called ‘being given the run around’. The more educated a man is, the more sophisticated the lies – or the more obvious since in his delusion he thinks you’re too stupid to get it. It’s why I said on another post that the concept of friendship is as thin as rice paper. Certainly NO institution is free from it and so often you find it where you least expect it. It seems to go with the further title ‘Human Being’.
@ DLP( formerly CBC)
Why is it so difficult to believe the leaders of the Democratic Labour Party when their advanced the view that the vicissitudinous nature of Barbadian economy is directly related to the worldwide economic meld-down? There is a prevailing perception with seems to indicates that the American economy has regained its full sustainability but this isn’t so. Now, even though the American economy has shown some sights of improvement: full time employment isn’t where it ought to be and housing foreclosures are still on the raised in the state of Connecticut and else where in the country. And finally, America still has a national debt amounting to some $13 trillion dollars that has yet to be paid. And this is just a few of the many the problems the average American is confronted with and which is directly related to the worldwide economic meltdown. Now, I could go on and on and speak about the many draconian measures that state government has implemented as a resulted of this economic recession. Now, public sector workers had to settled for drastic changes in their healthcare plans coupled with salaries freezes and furlough day without pay etc.
Things are projected to get worse for the average American who depends on the social programs, if the Republican Party should regained the White House next general election. The Republican Party intend to balanced the budget on the backs of the poor and middle – class in America. Never mine the wealthy who contribute little in the way of federal taxes, when compared to the poor and middle- class in America. Doesn’t it sound like a certain political party in Barbados?
Mr Fenty the Democratic party of America is the party of slavery. Go and read your American history because you appear to read a lot.
“Why is it so difficult to believe the leaders of the Democratic Labour Party when their advanced the view that the vicissitudinous nature of Barbadian economy is directly related to the worldwide economic meld-down”
Because Mr Fenty one of the senior leaders of the Democratic Labour party has since recanted , repented of his sins of deceitfulness to the public and admitted that the ‘vicissitudinous nature of the Barbadian economy’ was the fault of his administration alone. Why Mr Fenty do you find it so difficult to believe Mr Estwick now but before?
Caswell, it is the nature of politics and I am fully convinced that you’re not ignorant to this reality. Three years ago the governor of the state of Connecticut promised the public sector workers that no layouts would take placed, so voted their did for him and he stuck to the actual promised. However, within the first year in office he changed their healthcare benefits and forced them to take furlong days without pay. So much for putting one’s confidence in what a politician has to say to get elected.
Caswell, naïve we’re not to the tactics of the silver tongues demagogues who calls themselves the custodians of the people’s will. We have been down that road too many times before not to know the difference brother. What it really amount to is a choice between the better of two evils.
Caswell, I meant to say furlough days in the above statement, so please excuse my mistake.
“So much for putting one’s confidence in what a politician has to say to get elected.”
its not about the confidence placed in the lies told to get elected it is about what is said after having been elected
The DEMS are clearly running this country down into the ground to fortify their position and throwing simple economic sense through the window.
…….And many seem to be sitting idly by while it happens
still talking bout party
better save yuhself yuh !
to the politician , youre just another — s-t-a-tistic
blind loyalty to party-is so — fa-ta-listic
stop being so — tri- balistic
attitude so bom-bastic
words and actions caustic
save yuhself, yeah ! politician no saviour
Question is -who got the biggest balls ?
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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagga—supports Windies cricket
obviously
whats the score
whos’s batting
Vincent in a previous post referred to “forcing the world to come humbly to our doorstep”. Prodigal refers to a “once proud nation”. When do we propose to get real? Pride results in what?
@Balance
Mr Fenty the Democratic party of America is the party of slavery. Go and read your American history because you appear to read a lot
+++++++++++
Haven’t you been taken to the woodshed about this issue before? Talk about being a glutton for punishment.
“Haven’t you been taken to the woodshed about this issue before? Talk about being a glutton for punishment”
By whom? I wouldn’t attempt to deny you your obvious preference but equally I wouldn’t give up my right to be accurate in my commentary irrespective of the preference of others. I prefer to be a glutton for punishment on the side of fact.
“They have to learn to be decent about how they do things …When you start treating people like jackasses that must only be beast of burden and that don’t have minds and souls and that don’t deserve respect, then what you yourself are saying is that you don’t deserve respect. And this is what this is all about. RESPECT FOR PEOPLE!”