ADVOCATE EMPLOYEES FACING NON-PAYMENT OF SALARIES AGAIN
By Emmanuel Joseph
Workers at the island’s oldest newspaper, the Barbados Advocate are once again crying out against the non-payment of wages and salaries.
An upset employee who preferred to remain anonymous reported on Thursday that staff had not been paid for February, March or April, reminiscent of last year when staff went without payment for an extended period.
After more than eight months of waiting, the workers finally received their outstanding wages and salaries for May to December 2022 – the period for which they went empty-handed while a freezing order imposed by the High Court on the Advocate Publishers (Barbados) Inc’s main account, was in force.
“The account has been unfrozen since December. So moving from December now, January and February there were no publications. The company was still open, but there were no publications. That was nothing decided by the board or the staff, ” the worker told Barbados TODAY.
“At a staff meeting in February it was stated that…the assistant managing director and the HR manager met to discuss proceeding with the company and how they would go ahead. They decided that some layoffs would be done and that the paper would resume on March 1 and the staff would be paid for January and February when they were closed, the staff member reported.
“Up until present, February has not been paid, March ain’t paid, April ain’t paid, and you get every week a message saying there are a lot of challenges,” the disgruntled employee complained.
The source said that there are less than 20 people currently working at the Advocate now as workers continue to leave.
“I don’t see why it would take an extra month to sort out the salaries for 20 people.”
The staff member also expressed frustration that there seems to be no recourse for the employees, some of whom feel pressured to resign. There are fears among the remaining staff that the newspaper will be closed down and the company placed in receivership.
Persistent efforts to contact the assistant managing director Sean Eteen and human resources manager Natalie Browne proved futile.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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