The Barbados Workers’ Union is warning hoteliers to treat their employees fairly or risk negative consequences.
During the opening session of the BWU’s 82nd Annual Delegates Conference on Saturday at Solidarity House, General Secretary Toni Moore stated that while there were a number of unfair practices raising their heads across multiple sectors, the tourism industry has repeatedly come into sharp focus, given the level of unfair treatment imposed onto employees.
“When COVID was upon us in a very real way, the hoteliers reached out to the unions, they reached out to the government for concessions, for a little ease. Guess what? It was given. Is it fair to workers in the sector, is it fair to many of those workers who are your family members, your neighbours, your friends, for an industry to be boasting that it is picking up, or to be seeing positive change, but the workers in many respects, are not even seeing progress, or seeing themselves worse off?
“We cannot be in an environment where we want to be reporting changes to GDP and numbers of visitors in the positives, and the workers’ experience being negative,” she said.
She also added: “The hotels represent what for many of us [in] this country, what sugar was in years gone by. It’s the backbone of this country. If the Barbados Workers’ Union cannot help the workers in the industry to get it right for themselves, I don’t know how much hope the rest of us should hold out that we can make a difference.”
