By Emmanuel Joseph
Barbados (Barbados Today) – The two-year wait by severed workers of Caves of Barbados Limited (CBL) for pension payments should end in days.
Chairman of CBL Ralph Thorne, KC said on Wednesday night that arrangements will be finalised within that time.
“Within a matter of days, the ex-employees will be invited to exercise, in writing, their individual options as to the manner of disbursement that they will choose. In addition, in a matter of days, arrangements will be finalised for the payment of back pensions,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“This is a financial transaction that pertains to the ex-employees for a long time into their future and I am sure that they will wish to have it properly done.”
Thorne’s disclosure came in response to Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) Wayne Walrond who had earlier in the day criticised the company’s delay in settling the pension claims.
Walrond told Barbados TODAY the NUPW was “extremely disturbed” that after two years, the former employees of the National Conservation Commission (NCC) who had transitioned to CBL and were severed from that company were yet to receive their pensions.
“The NUPW finds the situation scandalous, vexatious and [that it] imposes undue hardship on these workers who have been without an income for over two years,” he said.
The union official, therefore, appealed to CBL and all relevant authorities to settle this issue urgently.
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