The rubber is going to meet the road for labour unions in Barbados as negotiations intensify for a new collective wage agreement for public officers in Barbados.
The island’s largest representative of civil servants is the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), while a lesser number of state workers is represented by the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU). Of course, the upstart
Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Cleviston Haynes is assuring the public that the financial sector here remains well-regulated and stable.
His assurances came during his quarterly media briefing on Wednesday and in light of recent discussions surrounding governance at a local financial institution and its parent company, and on the heels of reports of missing funds from an investment
Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Cleviston Haynes will leave the top post at month-end.
He confirmed on Wednesday that he had come to the end of his term at the island’s premier financial institution and that his last day at the Tom Adams Financial Centre headquarters will be Tuesday, January 31, 2023.
Haynes, who acted as Governor of the Central
The long-awaited upgrade and expansion of the real time payment system Automated Clearing House (ACH), will roll out in two months, says Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn.Straughn said that Government was doing all it could to advance the island into the digital age and the introduction of this system was one of the key parts of the plan.He made this disclosure on Monday during a press conference at State House, Government Hill, St Michael.He said “In January 2019 I met with all of the financial institutions who participate in the payment system and they have all been able now to complete their testing with respect to the upgrade of the real time ACH . . . While they assured me that they did not want to introduce new technology during the Christmas season, they have agreed to be able to launch that in February 2023.
Much is riding on the success of the island’s winter tourist season which officially began yesterday and runs until mid-April.We are aware of the untold damage inflicted on the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic from mid-2020 into late 2021, before we began to witness a rebound in international tourism and travel.In fact, at the beginning of 2020, the local economy was set for a major recovery after several years of contraction and anaemic economic activity, when the pandemic turned everything on its head.As Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Cleviston Haynes reported, the tourism sector was “buoyant and the prospect of substantial new private sector investments were on the horizon”.The pandemic wiped out many of the economic and social gains and traumatized many households not only through illness and death, but financial ruin.