Contract workers employed with the Government of T&T are being exploited.
Despite promises of three-year contracts from the Ministry of Public Administration, several contracts remain on short-term from one month to two years rendering employees extremely stressed, demotivated and at a disadvantage.
During the opening of the Industrial Court on St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain, for the 2013/2014 law term, the president of the Industrial Court, Deborah Thomas-Felix, indicated that a person on contract in the public sector is not considered a public servant and hence is at an obvious disadvantage because he/she is not "considered to be a worker within the meaning of the Industrial Relations Act of T&T" (Ramdass, 2013).
She also informed that individuals on short-term contracts could not open bank accounts and apply for mortgages "due to the very short duration of their employment contracts."
Of course, the caveat of her speech was that there were many people living with much uncertainty about the sustainability of their incomes, livelihood and their very existence. This sounds like a lot of hopeless people living in T&T to me.
Other distressful issues that contract workers are facing are as follows:
�2 Contract workers in travelling positions have stopped receiving their meagre transport allowance ($1,500) while their counterparts who were hired through Service Commission receive double that transport allowance after they calculate their mileage. Is this equality and fairness?
�2 The gratuity promised at the end of the contract period takes years to be paid, but yet interest is not added to the lump sum which we would have gotten if it was placed in a retirement fund right away.
�2 Certain ministries are making workers sign a document stating that he/she has to repay the ministry/Government if the person is overpaid! This policy is so oppressive!
As a contract worker, I am asking a trade union to take up these burning issues of contract workers since we form a large part of the workforce.
Teddy Ali
Arima