The Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) has sounded the alarm over what it claims is a disturbing pattern of power abuse by senior civil servants, threatening the ability of union leaders to perform their lawful duties.At a press conference on Wednesday at the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) headquarters, CTUSAB General Secretary Dennis De Peiza charged that certain department heads are allegedly using their authority to obstruct trade union leaders and executives from carrying out their legitimate duties—a move he noted contravenes the Trade Union Act. He explained: “What is of real importance to us is a problem that we are recognising as critical to be dealt with at this point. We are noticing a trend where heads of some departments in government are abusing their authority. They are doing it to the persons who are heads of trade unions and staff associations and other members of the executives of unions. They are using their power or authority to hinder those persons from carrying out their legitimate trade union duties, which is in contravention of Section 48 of the Trade Union Act.”
