Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95) - Barbados (Ratification: 1967)

Article 11 of the Convention. Wages as a privileged debt in bankruptcy proceedings. Further to the observations made by the Barbados Workers’ Union in 2011 concerning the possible ratification of the Protection of Workers’ Claims (Employer’s Insolvency) Convention, 1992 (No. 173), the Committee notes the Government’s indication that consideration of an international labour Convention for ratification is a matter kept constantly under review as national priorities determine. The Committee recalls, in this respect, that Convention No. 173 was designed as a dual-thrust instrument proposing two distinct sets of standards – one dealing with protection by means of a privilege and another covering wage guarantee funds – which may be accepted together or separately. As explained in greater detail in paragraphs 331–353 of the 2003 General Survey on protection of wages, Convention No. 173 strengthens the traditional privilege system while exploring new means of protection in the form of wage guarantee institutions and leaving a wide margin of discretion to ratifying countries for the implementation of the relevant standards. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any progress made towards the possible ratification of Convention No. 173, which contains the most relevant standards in relation to the protection of workers’ claims in the event of the employer’s bankruptcy or insolvency.

Article 14. Information on wage conditions prior to employment and at the time of each payment of wages. The Committee recalls its previous comments in which it noted that the Protection of Wages Act (Cap. 351) in its current reading does not give full effect to Article 14 of the Convention since it does not require that workers be informed of the wage conditions applicable to them before they enter employment or be provided with a wage statement at the time of each payment of wages. The Committee notes with interest that the recently adopted Employment Rights Act 2012 provides, in section 13, for a written statement of employment particulars – including the scale or rate of wages, the method of calculating wages and the pay intervals to be given to an employee prior or forthwith upon the commencement of a contract of employment. Moreover, section 17 of the same Act provides that an employee has the right to receive from his/her employer, at or before the time at which payment of wages is made to him/her, a written, itemized pay statement which should include particulars of the gross amount of wages, the amounts of any variable or fixed deductions, the net amount of wages payable, the date of payment and the dates of the pay period.