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| March 30, 2003 | Sunday | Muharram 26, 1424 |
WI players’ pay dispute resolved
BERBICE (Guyana), March 29: The West Indies Carib Beer semi-final matches will go ahead on Saturday after the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and West Indies Players Association (WIPA) ended their stand-off over players’ fees.
The dispute over increased fees for players in senior domestic competitions resulted with the team members from the semi-finalists in the Carib Beer series refusing to take the field for their scheduled matches on Friday.
The games featuring Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago at Kensington Oval in Barbados and Guyana versus Jamaica at the Albion Sports Complex in Berbice were now due to start at 1000 (1400 GMT) on Saturday.
The WICB and WIPA resumed talks on Friday after discussions broke down on Thursday evening and have agreed on a way to address the outstanding issues, including increased fees to players in senior domestic competitions.
Last month, WICB raised the fees paid to players in senior domestic competitions by 20 percent for non-international players and 10 percent for internationals. However, WIPA was not satisfied with the increase.
The WICB said on Friday that it would start negotiations with WIPA next week when both sides will be represented by industrial relations advisors. Both parties agreed to establish collective bargaining procedures between the board and WIPA.
Another contentious issue concerned WIPA’s right to represent all regional players. The WICB was insistent the association should prove these players were members and that they had agreed to be bound by their negotiations.
“The WICB will unreservedly recognise WIPA as the bargaining unit for the first-class players once this requirement is met,” Roger Brathwaite, acting chief executive of WICB, who led the cricket body’s negotiating team, had said.
Previously, the WIPA had only been recognised by the WICB as the representative of West Indies players for international competitions and had therefore only negotiated for Test and limited-overs squads from its inception.
The WICB’s decision to question WIPA’s right to represent all regional players triggered a walkout by WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine late on Thursday.
Brathwaite had also said that while WIPA had produced a number of membership forms, many were not signed and others were illegible.
But the two sides have now decided to develop a mutually agreed format to prove membership of WIPA.
The board says it will recognise WIPA as the bargaining agent for all players as long as it is satisfied with the authenticity of its membership.
The WICB also said it is prepared to financially support training in leadership and industrial relations for members of WIPA and the WICB.—Reuters
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