Caridoc sends home 27 long-service employees

THE heat is on at CL Marine’s Caribbean Dockyard and Engineering Services Ltd (Caridoc) in more ways than one, as the company has laid off over 20 long-serving employees and is recovering from a disastrous fire at its Chaguaramas compound that cost the company millions of dollars.

A senior employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, explained, “The members of the board are upholding a policy we have that, over the years, we never implemented. It says once you reach the age of 60, you retire.

"But we have people over the age of 75 still working in the dockyard, because we never enforced that.

“We do not have a policy for retirement benefits, but the idea was if people had to go, they had to get some kind of compensation.

"Now they just want to send you home with nothing because you’re over 60.”

The source said the decision to send home employees over 60 was made in May and affected over 20 people, many of whom had been working at the company for over 40 years.

They said the company’s owners had changed a few times, the current owner being the Government, and no one sought to address the retirement issue.

They had no idea why the decision was made, but thought it possible the board wanted to get rid of its chief operations officer, Wayne Beharry, who was on pre-retirement leave, and the other employees got swept along.

National Trade Union Centre (Natuc) general secretary Michael Annisette said a lot of efforts were being made by the union to address the issue.

He said about two weeks ago Natuc requested a meeting with Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan, the line minister for Caridoc, on the firing of 27 workers, both senior management and regular employees, but had not received an acknowledgement. The union planned to write to the minister again. He said the removal of so many of the most senior and experienced staff members of any company could cripple it, and wondered if the minister approved the policy decision.

“A few of the workers came to us and we saw it as a contradiction that, while the Government is articulating they want to extend the age of retirement as it relates to NIS (to 65), that this company is using the question of the age of the workers who continue to work after age 60 as a basis for sending them home.

“We believe it is an attempt to impose someone who we believe has no shipyard expertise and no experience as the chief operating officer there. We are deeply concerned, given the conversations we had with people who worked there for an extended period, that she is the wrong fit for that particular job. We believe the minister should have intervened.”

Newsday contacted Caridoc chief financial officer Amanda Cornwall-Pereira and chairman Hayden Charles seeking clarity. Both said they had “no comment” on anything, including the fire that broke out in the early morning of July 5.
Calls to Beharry and Sinanan went unanswered.

Fire officials said the fire started when Caridoc workers tried to burn a beehive on the compound on Western Main Road, Chaguaramas. The fire spread, destroying several million dollars' worth of fibreglass used by oil and gas companies to sheath their drilling pipes.

Fire tenders from the Four Roads and Chaguaramas fire stations, with support from the Wrightson Road headquarters, battled the fire for hours.

There were no reported injuries.