THA Minority Leader turns to the court over staff salaries

TOBAGO House of Assembly (THA) Minority Leader Kelvon Morris has instructed his attorneys to initiate legal action against the THA for non-payment of salaries to staff at his office.

Speaking on the Minority Report programme aired on the Tobago Updates Network on Tuesday, Morris said, after months of frustration, he was now being put into a position to ask the law to take its course.

“The court will settle this matter. I have instructed and given instructions to a lawyer to initiate two legal proceedings against the THA – one with respect to the staff and one with respect to the rightful resources of the Office of the Minority.

"Enough is enough! And we are going to let the court determine this matter once and for all.”

He said, "from small," he had always had a hate for injustice as injustice to one was injustice to all. He said an attack on the Minority was an "attack on democracy" as he noted that his staff was reporting to work diligently, doing a fair day’s work, but receiving no pay.

“That is the situation of the staff members in the Office of the Minority as we speak. This matter has been a longstanding matter that began from very early (in the current term). And because we saw what the possibilities that could have happened down the road, we made every attempt to have this matter dealt with expeditiously.”

He said five members of his staff were paid by the Assembly Legislature up to last December.

“January, we recognised that the staff was not paid at all on time. After making some noise and raising it in the public space, marching down to the Chief Administrator's Office and demanding a meeting, although she didn’t want to take the meeting with us.

"We had to wait there, and we demanded that we weren’t going to leave. And we were met in the hallway like some dogs. While she drank coffee, and my staff can’t even buy a bread for their children.”

He said, since then, he had been writing and calling the Chief Administrator’s Office and leaving messages aimed at finding out what was happening. But, to date, there has been no response or acknowledgement.

“The Chief Administrator does not even have the courtesy, not even the courtesy, to acknowledge these letters.”

He said his intervention did not stop there as he personally called Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, alerting him to the issue.

“He gave me the assurance that he would speak with the Chief Administrator and have the matter addressed. That was sometime in February, now we’re in April.

"Coming into April, I called him again, sometime at the end of March, to alert him that no action has been taken and the staff is still without pay. Again, he told me hold the line and he would call the chief administrator.

"At that point, he didn’t get on to her but I am sure since that call and now, the Chief Secretary must have had, and must have seen the chief administrator since then.

"Yet I’ve had no update, the staff are still unpaid. These are people with bills, these are people with families, these are people who have all the basis requirements like sustenance like each and every one of us.”

He added: “This is nothing short of an attack on democracy, an attack on the Office of the Minority, and a deliberate attempt to frustrate the work that we are doing on your behalf. And it’s an attempt to muzzle us as well. But I want to give everyone the assurance that I would not sit back!”

Newsday attempted to contact Augustine for an update, but all calls and messages to his mobile phone went unanswered.

In February, THA Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Chief Secretary Certica Williams-Orr claimed the non-payment of salaries to the staff of the Office of the Minority Leader was not an act of malice.