Barbados to make payday a legal obligation under new Wages Bill

Barbados: Payday is officially to become a legal obligation for employers under a new law that will require the employers to pay workers on their scheduled payday, with late wages permitted only in genuine emergencies, as the administration moves to tighten protections around pay and deductions.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley led the second reading of the Protection of Wages Bill in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, July 21, where she noted that the measure is designed to protect workers’ rights and reinforce the principle that wages belong to workers, not employers, and should never be "held hostage."

“A wage packet is not an accountant entry. It is rent, it is bus fare, it is school lunch,” the Prime Minister noted.

“This is what helps people buy food or may have to go for prescriptions. It allows people to keep their body and their dignity safe.”

She explained that clause 3 of the bill requires every employer to establish a recurring pay period and a recurring payday, giving workers certainty to organise their finances. Late wages will only be permitted in genuine emergencies.

“That certainty is critical for employees to plan out their lives,” Mottley said.

Mottley further stated that she wanted “every worker from the fields to the factories, from the hotels to the homes” to understand what the legislation would guarantee.

Furthermore, the bill does not require every employee to be paid weekly, instead, it protects whatever regular pay cycle has been established.

She further added that the delayed wages should occur only in cases of genuine catastrophe or emergency, “A worker should not have to lend it back to any business by waiting beyond payday,” she said.

Mottley highlighted clause 18 of the bill, saying that, “Clause 18 requires that all wages and other amounts already due at the end of employment to be paid no later than the payday of the next pay period.”

She further used an example and said if a failed business owed a worker $2,000, that worker must have priority to receive that $2,000 before the business pays a supplier that would normally be treated as a creditor.

As per the previous reports, the bill had earlier gone through committee-stage debate on July 8, where Toni Moore, MP for St George North and general secretary of the Barbados Workers' Union, called on colleagues to revisit recommendations that were left out, including tighter language to ensure wages are paid on time and no later than the established payday.