BHTA hits back at BWU comments

The Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association has hit back at statements made by senior officials of the Barbados Workers’ Union during a press conference on Tuesday.

In a statement today, BHTA Chairman Renée Coppin, expressed concern about the tone and content of some of the comments made by BWU General Secretary Toni Moore and Deputy General Secretary Dwaine Paul.

The Union bosses have both voiced their displeasure with the treatment of some hotel workers, with Mr. Paul seemingly giving hoteliers until the start of the winter tourist season to address workers’ concerns.

In response, the BHTA said as a membership organisation it does not have direct oversight of individual businesses and that concerns usually only reach the association via the BWU if there is a breakdown in the industrial relations process and remediation cannot be accomplished at the level of the business.

The Union also raised concerns that hotels which participated in the Barbados Employment & Sustainable Transformation or BEST programme failed to complete employee training, which was a key pillar of the 300 million dollar state funded programme.

Ms. Coppin says the most recent report from the BEST programme indicates that only 22 of the 50 businesses provided with funds for employee re-engagement less than half were hotels.

She says the BHTA has reached out to the agency responsible for the delivery of training to ask for an analysis to determine if it is indeed accurate that the training was not fully utilised.

The BHTA head is questioning whether using the bulk of the BEST funds for employee re-engagement, rather than upgrading the properties was not the desired outcome.

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