PNM to government workers: Call us if you fear losing your job

OPPOSITION Leader Pennelope Beckles along with Opposition Senator Faris Al-Rawi addressed government claims of CEPEP contracts being renewed right before elections and the potential for "mass firings" at that and other governmental bodies at a media conference on June 9.

Al-Rawi countered government claims by saying hundreds of people at regional health authorities (RHAs) had become unemployed by non-renewal of contracts. He also said thousands at CEPEP and the Rural Development Company (RDC), forestry division feared losing their jobs.

He said government had taken an approach with respect to covid19 workers at the regional health authorities (RHAs) and, in one RHA, the contracts of 700 workers were not renewed, he said.

“The issue of firings is enlarged by non-contract renewals.”

The PNM said it had established a hotline for people to call about firings, constructive dismissal, threats of firings or non-renewal of contracts.

Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath said in June 8 a media report that CEPEP contracts were awarded without cabinet approval before the April 28 general election. Government ministers Padarath and Minister of Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein also made other claims about hirings at CEPEP and other bodies.

Al-Rawi said claims by Padarath and Hosein that contractors at the Rural Development Company (RDC) forestry division were taking home $45,000 a month and at CEPEP were not true.

He said the monthly contractor’s fee at CEPEP was $ 21,000 and a contractor at the RDC got $4,581.61.

Al-Rawi described the ministers’ statements as exaggerated.

“RDC’s forestry programme employs approximately 4,700 workers.”

He said a rehabilitation assistant under that programme earned $120 a day, a tool operator $146 and a foreman $165 a day.

“Amongst the 80 established and 64 temporary contractors, you are looking at the thousands of people earning close to minimum wage, just above minimum wage.”

Al-Rawi said a CEPEP labourer earned $135 a day, an operator $145.20, a foreman $165 a day and there were over 10,700 people employed at the company.

“We are informed that the review of these entities (forestry and CEPEP) is on the way and, that review, meets with the statements of minister Padarath.

“Minister Padarath said, ‘I was taking front’ before the issue of mass firings came forward.”

Al-Rawi interpreted this as a confirmation of mass firings.

“What has happened, so far, as the Leader of Opposition has put forward, is that there is a fear amongst thousands of people that they’d be out of employment.”

Al-Rawi said extension of contracts was a matter for the boards of those companies and not ministers.

“The Public Procurement law requires certain processes to be done for new contracts and the extension of contracts is a matter that went before those boards and they (those boards) took steps that they saw in the interest of business continuity, as it was explained to me.

“I, as minister then of Rural Development and Local Government, gave no instructions and certainly could not and was not involved in any contract renewals, per say.”

He said a minister's reach did not extend into such things.

While all contracts had mechanisms for review and termination, his information was that the government intended to do so en masse.

“The fear that thousands of workers have is they will simply be put out of jobs, either by way of reduction of teams that contractors manage or by way of a cancellation of the programme entirely and then a reboot or reset.”

He said the opposition was informed that there were to be no renewal of contracts particularly for first-time contractors, without direct involvement of the Ministry of Health.

Al-Rawi said many whistleblowers who were mortally afraid to speak were worried about where they would get their next dollar.

Several people at the Office of the Attorney General were also brought forward to have their contract bought out, costing the state hundreds of thousands dollars, Al-Rawi added.

“So instead of taking people and putting them into another area of the Office of the Attorney General. They have been brought forward, told, ‘Pack your bags immediately’, escorted out by security downstairs and told we’ll get back to you on the purchase of your contracts. “

He said none of the people he inherited at the Office of Attorney General were sent home.

The opposition called upon the government to be fair and responsible and said people who have political affiliations were not to be so labelled because they received a contract at the time a government was in power.

“We occupied as a government nearly ten years of office. It surely cannot be that everybody that was hired for the ten years that we were in office are labelled as PNM and must be sent home and escorted with people down to the door.”