Minister of Labour Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo has intervened to try to resolve the impasse between the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) and the Barbados Water Authority (BWA).
She is chairing a meeting attended by chief labour officer Vincent Burnett, a delegation from the BWU led by general secretary Sir Roy Trotman, and a BWA team headed by chairman Atlee Brathwaite and acting general manager John Mwanza at the ministry’s Warrens headquarters.
The talks began at 4:38 pm, shortly before a planned 5 pm extraordinary meeting of the BWU’s highest decision-making body, the executive council, to discuss intensifying the industrial action.
That meeting, however, has been postponed.
BWU General Secretary Sir Roy Trotman told Barbados TODAY the outcome of the talks with labour officials will be a major factor in deciding the next move for the union.
Yesterday, he suggested that if the BWA could put forward a “reasonable” proposal in writing to address the workers’ issues, including payment of increments, further industrial action could be averted.
More than 500 BWA employees have been off the job since last Thursday.