Hobbling on his walking stick, 98-year-old Balkissoon Mandee went to the Social Welfare office in San Fernando to get his pension cheque yesterday, but the office was closed when he got there, apparently because of health and safety concerns.Mandee, who lives at Friendship Village, San Fernando, said he was disappointed because he had walked from Lord Street to Independence Avenue, hoping to get his pension.
"Since June I didn't get pension. I came here once before but they said the office closed from 11 am," Mandee said, wiping his forehead with trembling hands. The former sugar cane worker said were it not for his daughter-in-law, he would have starved. He said the PSA should have informed the public about the closure of the office.
As he spoke, dozens of pensioners stood in the hot sun while two officials from the Ministry of the People and Social Development tried to locate their cheques. Several people were also awaiting public assistance and disability grants. Among them was Dave De Souza who was nursing a bullet wound to his shoulder.De Souza said he was picking up bottles at the side of Coffee Street when a man tried to rob him and shot him.
Kelvin Duncan, who went to collect a disability grant for his two-year-old son, said he was upset.The Social Welfare office at Independence Avenue, San Fernando, was among five public buildings shut down by president of the Public Service Association, Watson Duke, over the past two months. A sign stuck on the wall reads "Office closed until further notice OSHA (15)."
Section 15 of the OSHA legislation gives a worker the right to refuse to work if he has reason to believe the workplace poses a danger.Contacted yesterday, Duke said the office had been shut down for the past two weeks."Since then there was some talk that the office will be moved to the Omardeen's building on Cipero Street over the weekend but I am yet to see that. We have no problem with workers being relocated but we will insist that the building be compliant with OSH standards," Duke said.
He added that Government must show that the Omardeen building had the approval from Town and Country Planning to house additional staff.