Kamla: Govt uncaring towards workers

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has described Government as being uncaring towards the nation's workers, especially during the restrictions of the covid19 pandemic, in her 2021 Labour Day message.

She said, "The uncaring actions of this Government have reversed and undone decades of progress made by this nation-building segment of our country.

"The fact that we commemorate Labour Day on a day when our non-essential workforce is unable to leave their homes to earn a salary due to the weekend curfew, and while others have not been able to work a single day to feed their families for several months, thoroughly demonstrates that this government does not care or have a heart for the workers of this nation."

Persad-Bissessar said long before the pandemic, this administration’s lack of vision and plans had resulted in massive job losses, with fewer opportunities for workers in all sectors, including "the unforgivable national sin of placing thousands of Petrotrin workers on the breadline."

She said this was in sharp contrast to the former People'e Partnership Government being focused on people-centred development, diversification, creating sustainable jobs in new industries, and improving the standard of living for all citizens.

"Whilst the Government is lauding workers for their roles in fighting the pandemic, workers on the frontline are still working on 2013 salaries in 2021. During the period 2010 to 2015, the Government I led settled 135 collective agreements and created more than 56,000 jobs. Today our citizens have little hope for the future under this oppressive regime.

"Today I call on the Prime Minister to return dignity, restore respect and most of all reinstate opportunities for our non-essential workers to earn a living which has been taken away from them in the past weeks.

"The level of hardship, turmoil and vulnerability facing our workforce today as a result of the lockdown has degraded all that the labour movement has fought for in our nation."

She urged the Government to settle long outstanding negotiations in the public service, to end the freeze on hiring new staff and stop the trend towards contract labour which goes against the decent work agenda of the ILO which Trinidad and Tobago has adopted.

She said on the 84th anniversary of the birth of the modern trade union movement in TT which honours patriots such as George Weekes, Albert Maria Gomes, Adrian Cola Rienzi, Elma Francois, and Tubal Uriah Butler, there must be a fight to save the future of workers in this nation.