Barbados: Mottley administration to lay-off 1,500 employees in bid to revive economy

The Mottley administration in Barbados has revealed that at least 1,500 public workers will be laid off over the next few weeks as it seeks to turn around an ailing economy, while acknowledging that sending home 1 worker “is too many”.

Prime Minister Mottley, in a radio and television broadcast earlier this week, said that the job cuts will affect workers in central government and government entities.

“We give the country the assurance that while we do not have the exact number because we are following process, rather than arithmetical deductions, we know that it is unlikely to be more than 1,500 people over the course of the next few weeks. But, regrettably, 1 is too many,” she said, while detailing a wide-ranging plan to cushion the fallout.

The prime minister, whose Barbados Labor Party (BLP) came to power in the May general election this year, acknowledged that it was a painful exercise her administration has embarked upon, but added that the lay-offs would be underpinned by the last-in, first-out principle and workers are in line to receive full packages.

“There will be severance-type packages available to persons, particularly the temporary persons, and more than 80 percent are temporary. Two: that those severance-type packages will also be buttressed by payment in lieu of notice. Three: that without prejudice to that, that in some instances that there is vacation pay due to officers at an individual level.”

In her address, Mottley told Barbadians that her Cabinet had also agreed to ensure that dislocated workers would go home with their payments in hand.

Barbados recently entered into a US$290 million Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Mottley told the nation that at least 99 percent of the creditors have agreed to back the government’s debt restructuring exercise.

The reduction in the government’s wage bill is one of the conditions the IMF imposed on Barbados in order to access the EFF. -(CMC)