Daily-paid workers employed with the Ministry of Works in Siparia protested yesterday over late payment of their wages, which they said was a regular occurrence.
The 30 workers, led by National Union Government and Federated Workers southern division executive Edward Fabien, assembled outside the Ministry of Works on High?Street,?Siparia, protesting the delay in payment of their fortnightly wages. They are calling on Works and Infrastructure Minister Emmanuel George to intervene.
Calls to George's cellphone went unanswered yesterday.
Fabien said since September workers had been receiving late payments and yesterday they decided they had had enough.
"We are fed up and we decided to take a stand today (yesterday). This has been happening for a while now and we cannot take it any more. We come out for duty but we are protesting to let the authorities know we are not getting paid on time," Fabien said.
He said close to 200 daily-paid casual workers in the county of St Patrick had been suffering financial hardship because of late payments.
"It is the whole of St Patrick, from Siparia to La Brea and Cedros, affected by this late payment. We supposed to get pay Friday and nothing in the bank today. We want our voice to be heard for the MP or Minister of Works to step in and do something about this late pay," Fabien added.
He said the last straw came on Christmas Day.
"Imagine we get pay Christmas night. The money was in the bank, who had card could have done business. We did not have a good Christmas at all.?The workers were very low and who had money had a good Christmas," he lamented.
Fabien claimed daily-paid workers were treated with scant courtesy because "we are the lowest end of the stick."
He said was because daily-paid workers maintained roads, constructed bridges and cleared drains.
"They are disrespecting workers by not sending money to the bank on time. When you send it late to the bank, the bank have a process that holds it 24 hours before it is released. That is the problem. At the end of the day, if the ministry send the cheque on time we will get pay on a Friday, which is our official day of pay," he said.
Fabien said if the situation continued, workers from St Patrick would stage a mass protest for their wages.
Junior Minister Responds
Minister in the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure Stacy?Roopnarine says the delay in payments to daily-paid workers employed with the Ministry of Works in Siparia was under investigation.
Roopnarine said, "I was made aware of the delay in payment only this morning (yesterday) by an employee."
She assured me the matter was "urgently being investigated by the permanent secretary and the administration of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, both to determine the cause for delay and also to expedite payment."
The minister described the situation as "unfortunate" since some daily-paid workers have not yet been paid.
She said measures were being taken to prevent any further reoccurrence of the delay in payments. "We do sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to those workers not yet paid," Roopnarine added.