Chief Secretary: Low productivity in Tobago concerning

Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine says Tobago’s productivity must be discussed.

Augustine was addressing Signal Hill/Patience Hill residents during Tuesday’s THA Executive Council district town meeting at the Patience Hill Community Centre.

In 2019, historian Dr Rita Pemberton raised the lack of productivity during a lecture series hosted by the Tobago Writers’ Guild and Tobago Library Services.

The issue has since been a talking point on the island.

Augustine is now saying he has looked across the THA at how much is spent on wages versus how much is spent on capital development – building bridges, roads, schools and so on – and the assembly spends two-three times more on wages.

“And (if) when you drive by at 7.30 in the morning, all the workers done pack up and gone home already, then we have a problem.

“If we are spending most of the monies we get on employing people, and when you drive by you have to be zig-zagging on the road because all the stuff piles up on the side of the road, then we have a problem.

“If we’re spending most of the monies we get on employing people, and people want to duck in now and duck out, take two days and cuss the foreman and the checker because you want to get paid for them and you don’t want anybody mark you out, then we have a problem.”

He said he knew this was a problem when THA workers could come to him and say they were having issues on their job sites and ask him to visit.

“You know what is the problem? The foreman want me to stay for two hours.

“How is that a problem? It is a problem because I want to leave, I want to go and do so by so. “If we are going to agree as an island that we need to spend most of the monies we get employing people because our private sector is not yet strong and dependent on its own, then we also have to agree as a people that when we do that, we also have to come to the jobs and give of our very best.”

He said that starts with the smallest man.

“For God’s sake, (if) you get one of the coveted ‘morning work’ as you call it, please go and do your very best.

“It is not that we’re trying to enslave you with bullish work.

“For most people employed in daily-rated work for example, it is task-related, which means that your foreman comes and measures your task, or at least is supposed to measure out your task and you complete the task for the day before you leave, which gives you an opportunity to leave early if you complete your task efficiently in a quick time.

“But for God’s sake, put in the work.”

He said after workers have put in the work and done their home chores, they should have less time during the productive hours of the day to lime, drink and chill on the block.

He said this time was an opportunity to invest in something else or find another income.

“It cannot be right that you are given a job, taxpayers are paying you, and the work output is at a minimum.”