Category: Press

2014-06-29-BarbadosToday-PortAuthorityRetrenchment

Source: http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2014/06/29/port-authority-retrenchment/

Port Authority Retrenchment 2014-06-29 Barbados Today

2014-06-29-BarbadosToday-PortAuthorityRetrenchment

Opposition MP Edmund Hinkson is claiming that an estimated 100 workers at the Port Authority will be laid off.

The St James North representative said the management of the port had already notified the Barbados Workers Union of its intention and the two parties were due to begin negotiations.

“One issue that I have not seen highlighted in the Press yet. On the 16th of April, the chief executive officer of the Port Authority wrote to [BWU General Secretary] Sir Roy Trotman, giving him notice that the Port Authority plans to lay off 100. . . out of the 392 workers, 25 per cent of the port are proposed to lose their jobs,” Hinkson said at a press briefing yesterday.

“Under the Employment Rights Act, notice was given to the main union of the workers of the port and they were to enter negotiations on how best this [retrenchment] could be done.”

Hinkson, who co-hosted the briefing with Senator Wilfred Abrahams in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, said despite news that workers would be sent home, many of those already on the breadline were yet to be compensated.

“We have the situation where after months now the 47 per cent of the National Housing Corporation [workers] that have gone home – that is the amount by which National Housing Corporation staff were cut – they haven’t received their severance pay or employment rights benefits as yet . . . the Transport Board workers, the 250-odd or so, they haven’t received theirs yet either,” he said.

2014-06-28 Barbados Today

Source: http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2014/06/28/hinkson-accused-government-of-broken-education-promises/

Hinkson accuses Government of broken promises

Opposition Senator Wilfred Abrahams (L) an MP, Edmund Hinkson at the press briefing todayOpposition Senator Wilfred Abrahams (L) an MP, Edmund Hinkson at the press briefing today
Opposition Senator Wilfred Abrahams (L) an MP, Edmund Hinkson at the press briefing today

An opposition parliamentarian is today accusing the Freundel Stuart administration of reneging on its promise to act as a guarantor for certain student loan applicants and failing to follow through on the promised National Registration Education Plan.

The accusations were made at a press briefing at the office of the Leader of the Opposition by Member of Parliament for St James North, Edmund Hinkson.

He recalled that Minister of Education, Ronald Jones, had promised during debate on the last budget that Government would stand as a guarantor for applicants to the Student Revolving Loan Fund  for those who could not afford to pay.

“Yet, he has recently announced a policy for these loans that does not in any way remove the previous requirements of two sureties or collateral security, such as cash, land, property, shares, government paper, shares or mutual funds,” the St James, North representative said.

He noted that only loans of $12,000 or less attract no surety, which is contrary to the Government undertaking.

“They promised that there will be no threshold whatsoever,” he contended.

Hinkson also questioned Government’s silence on a plan, announced in the 2013 budget by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler, that would allow persons who utilise a National Registration Education Savings Plan to save towards tertiary education.

“This whole episode marks another in a string of breach of promises made by the DLP [government] to the people who elected them in order to improve the quality of their lives,” added Hinkson, the opposition shadow Minister of Education.

 

2014-06-18 Barbados Today

Source: http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2014/06/18/inniss-denies-foreign-exchange-restriction/

Inniss denies foreign exchange restriction

Minister of of Trade Donville Inniss has rubbished Opposition claims of a restriction by the Central Bank of Barbados on the amount of foreign exchange allowed to leave the country. The allegation was made by Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley during debate in the House of Assembly today on a bill to raise Government’s loan limit.

In his contribution, Inniss accused Mottley of making reckless and unpatriotic statements, which he warned could further jeopardize the Barbados economy.

“ . . . These statements can cause a lot of damage to this society, particularly when it is proven that they are comments that are not entirely true, comments to the extent that businesspeople in this society are experiencing immense difficulty at accessing funds from the Central Bank of Barbados,” Inniss told the House this evening.

He suggested that the Opposition Barbados Labour Party was merely trying to score cheap political points and putting politics above country.

“When a statement like that is made, particularly if it went unchallenged, one will get the impression that this economy is collapsing and there is a need for a serious run on the foreign exchange in this country,” he added.

But Opposition Member of Parliament Edmund Hinkson, an attorney, was adamant that such a measure was currently in place and had affected some of his overseas clients.

“I know that from a professional point of view that clients of mine who live outside of Barbados who have recently sold their land in Barbados have not been allowed to take more than the equivalent of BDS$100,000 of the sale price out of the country. The sale price might have been BDS$500,000 and the Central Bank had only given them permission to repatriate $100,000 out of the country . . . ,” Hinkson contended.

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