Moonilal questions CEPEP decision to reduce payments

Oropouche East MP Roodal Moonilal raised questions about Government's decision to reduce the amount provided in grants to CEPEP workers by a third, at an Opposition media briefing held on Sunday.

The questions came days after multiple releases from both the Ministry of Rural Development and CEPEP said payments to workers would be reduced by 33.3 per cent.

“CEPEP has more than 200 supervisory, managerial and executive staff receiving what could be significant salaries. Are the managers and executive staff also on a stipend and staying at home?” Moonilal asked, “Or do they continue to get their full executive and managerial salaries while the workers at the lowest rung – including single mothers – are at home receiving a public assistance grant?

“Are workers who are home receiving their stipend, do they still pay NIS, do they continue to be termed employees? Do they continue to pay health surcharge? Can you unilaterally suspend the payments of NIS because you have changed the category of these workers from employees to recipients of social welfare? How long is this stipend to be paid? Will it be weeks? Months?”

“These are serious issues,” Moonilal said. “Government has unilaterally altered the terms and conditions of employees.”

On Friday, CEPEP management said in a release sent to the media at just after 3 pm, that it decided to temporarily cut salaries of 10,000 workers by 33.3 per cent. It added that working hours and the size of teams would be reduced by half with immediate effect.

But at 11.13 pm on Friday another release was sent, this time by the Ministry of Rural Development.

In that release, the ministry said: “In this regard, a decision was taken by the board of CEPEP on Wednesday 26 May, 2021 to shut down the field operations and in so doing keep the CEPEP contractors and their workers’ safe at home with their families.

“It should be noted that these employees will receive a salary grant equal to two-thirds of the normal wages afforded to them by the company, although they are not working in the field at this time,” the release added.

The information in this release was then repeated by the Prime Minister, who, during a press briefing at the Diplomatic Centre on Saturday explained that the reduction in payment was not a “cut in salary” but a reduction in the allowances they received.

Dr Rowley added that it was done to avoid the added 10,000 people going to the Ministry of Social Development to register for financial support.