Lake Asphalt employees protest over unpaid wages

Approximately 200 employees of Lake Asphalt, displeased over unpaid wages, protested outside the Ministry of Works and Transport, London Street, Port of Spain on Friday afternoon.

The protest was led by the president general of the Contractors and General Workers Trade Union, Ermine De Bique-Meade.

Speaking to Newsday, she said, "These workers gathered here today are of Lake Asphalt (1978) Ltd. They are weekly- and monthly-paid workers, junior staff workers and senior staff workers.

"This company was moved from under the Ministry of Energy to under the Ministry of Works and Transport.

"The
monthly-paid workers have not been paid for two months and the weekly-paid
workers have not been paid for five weeks. We were told a few minutes ago that a cheque was written for $2.5 million, but that can only pay workers for one month."

De Bique-Meade claimed the reason for this, according to the Ministry of Works and Transport, was that Lake Asphalt was only moved under its authority in June, and therefore, the Ministry of Energy was responsible for May's outstanding payments.

She complained, "It wasn't the workers who moved the company from one ministry to a next, it was the Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley, on a political platform, who indicated that Lake Asphalt would be moved to under the Ministry of Works and Transport."

"Therefore, it should not be that the workers are made to suffer for something entirely out of their control."

"We are being told that a cheque had been drafted for the month of May by the Ministry of Energy, but when they found out that Lake Asphalt would be moved to another ministry's jurisdiction, that cheque was not delivered."

She said the workers were enduring the anguish and suffering as a resultof having to wait to be paid, adding, "Some of these people have not been paid since the end of April."

One worker who did not want to give his name, but appeared to be in his 40s, said, "I have a family to support. I am the one responsible for paying the bills and paying for my children to be transported to school. This backlog is causing us a lot of distress and difficulty. It isn't fair."

In addition to the outstanding wages, De Bique-Meade said the management of Lake Asphalt had not paid employees' pension plan contributions for a year.

"Workers who have retired or are about to retire will suffer the most, as the pension plan is not being honoured.

"Money is also being taken out of the employees' salary and it is not being remitted to NIB, BIR and health surcharge."

Another unnamed employee, who appeared to be in her 30s, said "We are concerned about our future. We don't only want to be paid what we're owed, but we are concerned that the same thing will happen again in the future.

"We want the government to come to the table with the union and sit down, bring whatever plan they have as it pertains to Lake Asphalt. This cannot continue the way it is now...we have families to take care of."