The Barbados government Friday began laying off the first batch of workers in the public service as it seeks to reverse an ailing economy.
The Freundel Stuart administration had been forced to push back the January 15 date for sending home 3,000 public sector workers over the coming months, after indicating that it had not drawn up the list of employees to be sent home.
Workers employed at the National Housing Corporation (NHC) were among the first to receive dismissal letters after the government had earlier this month rejected proposals from the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) as not going far enough to meet the objective of a significant cut in public sector expenditure.
NUPW general secretary Denis Clarke told reporters that some of the workers dismissed had been with the NHC for as much as 15 years and complained that the government had not kept its promise to provide the union with the official retrenchment list.
He hinted at possible court action to ensure dismissed workers receive their due compensation.
Source-Caribbean Media Corporation
