Geisha Kow­lessar

Scores of an­gry and frus­trat­ed pris­ons of­fi­cers are ex­pect­ed to gath­er out­side the of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Per­son­nel Ad­min­is­tra­tion (DPA) to­day to vent their dis­gust over what they claim are un­just prac­tices re­gard­ing the pro­mo­tion process. Pres­i­dent of the Pris­ons As­so­ci­a­tion, Ra­jku­mar Ram­roop, sent a clear mes­sage to Gov­ern­ment yes­ter­day, warn­ing that of­fi­cers were pre­pared to shut­down the na­tion's pris­ons if their de­mands were not met. He added: "This is the first of many waves to come. Pris­ons of­fi­cers have said enough is enough. It seems that the DPA wants to dic­tate the pace for pris­ons of­fi­cers. "The prob­lem is there are peo­ple who have no idea how to run the Pris­ons Ser­vice but they want to make de­ci­sions for us and clear­ly pris­ons of­fi­cers are dis­sat­is­fied so much so that they do not want to come to work.

"They pre­fer to stay at home and the as­so­ci­a­tion can­not blame them." Ram­roop cit­ed that in 2006 Cab­i­net agreed to ex­pand the Pris­ons Ser­vice by cre­at­ing ad­di­tion­al posts for First and Sec­ond Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers. He said while the po­si­tions of the First Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers have been filled there were some 102 po­si­tions which have ex­ist­ed since 2009 and were to date were emp­ty. The va­cant po­si­tions, Ram­roop said, in­clud­ed 71 Pris­ons Of­fi­cers Two, 27 Pris­ons Su­per­vi­sors and four Pris­ons Wel­fare Of­fi­cers Two. Call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to im­me­di­ate­ly in­ter­vene, Ram­roop said of­fi­cers al­so were pre­pared to seek ju­di­cial re­view as there was the de­lib­er­ate by-pass­ing of of­fi­cers to be pro­mot­ed. He said: "We are call­ing for the in­ter­ven­tion of the Prime Min­is­ter be­cause we have lost all faith in the DPA. We are al­so ask­ing the Prime Min­is­ter to im­ple­ment a team of in­de­pen­dent ju­rists to en­sure there is a fair prac­tice of pro­mo­tion." He al­so charged that the DPA vi­o­lat­ed the free col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing process, adding that the Pris­ons Of­fi­cers' As­so­ci­a­tion was the "right­ful body" to make de­ci­sions on be­half of pris­ons of­fi­cers.

Ac­cord­ing to Ram­roop there was de­lib­er­ate un­der­min­ing and wan­ton dis­re­gard for the as­so­ci­a­tion as mem­bers were be­ing left out when de­ci­sions were be­ing made. "Peo­ple who have been act­ing have been by-passed and pushed down the list and this is not in ac­cor­dance with the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ties Act of 2000," Ram­roop said. He said of­fi­cers al­so have lost con­fi­dence in the com­mis­sion's chair­man, Christo­pher Thomas, as re­peat­ed com­plaints have gone un­heed­ed. An­oth­er is­sue raised by Ram­roop was the stop­ping of over­time pay­ments. "Pris­ons of­fi­cers are no longer re­quired to per­form over­time du­ties but with the pris­ons al­ready short­staffed this could re­sult in a breach of se­cu­ri­ty," Ram­roop added.