Indarsingh: Workers an endangered species under PNM

COUVA South MP Rudranath Indarsingh has described workers as an “endangered species” as the ruling PNM administration has failed to create new jobs while over 30,000 workers have been retrenched in both the public and private sectors,.

In a media release on Tuesday, Indarsingh stated that he was in a state of “utter disbelief” following Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s announcement in Parliament last Friday that one of the government’s ten achievements was the “preservation of jobs.”

“How can Rowley speak about “preservation of jobs” when over 30,000 workers have lost their jobs in the public and private sectors since he became Prime Minister and this number keeps growing every week,” the release said.

Indarsingh said industrial relations and the collective bargaining process have both sunk to an “all time low” while the memorandum of understanding signed with the Joint Trade Union Movement has been “totally abandoned.”

“Prime Minister Rowley is being disingenuous in his assessment of the labour market when his administration has comprehensively undermined the free and fair collective bargaining process and up to this point in time, his Government cannot account to the labour movement how many collective agreements have been agreed upon,” he said.