Retrenched workers still waiting for gratuity

THE EDITOR: This letter is submitted on behalf of the former workers of Bayside Towers on the Western Main Road, Cocorite, who were retrenched on January 31, 2021. They are in quandary as to what to do in their fight for their gratuity.

As a former union official, family member of a former worker and friend to some who were retrenched, this case attracted my attention.

During December 2020, the workers were advised that their services were no longer required due the employment of a new management company. Shortly after retrenchment notices were served.

They were also told retrenchment documents, among others, had to be lodged with the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) for processing and when the “all clear” was given they would be paid.

After patiently waiting without a source of income, approximately five months later, in June 2021, they were given a partial payment of their gratuity for which they were grateful. The balance is yet to be paid.

January 31 will be one year with not a word from the Bayside Towers’s board of management.

I have many questions: Who is at fault here? Is it the BIR? Or is it the Bayside Tower board? Where can the workers seek updated information? Where can they voice their grievances and seek proper and fair representation? How is this fair and unbiased treatment?

Come on, people, these workers are people with families, too. Given the current state of the economy, where jobs are hard to find and even harder to keep for various reasons, how can the Bayside Towers people sleep at night knowing they are responsible for this injustice that has negatively impacted many families?

I hope the retrenched workers can at least find a little comfort in the fact that someone else cares and, more importantly, that Almighty God does not sleep. He has heard their prayers and will vindicate them.

I am also watching and waiting.

ERROL J ALEXANDER

Diego Martin