Perhaps the most-abused worker benefit in T&T is sick leave. For instance, even though teachers enjoy the same 13 weeks holidays as their students, many make sure and claim their full benefit of 14 casual and 14 sick days, regardless of whether they're sick or not. No wonder the Minister of Education is always complaining about the high rate of teacher absenteeism. The same abuse abounds in other areas of the public service and the private sector. Ask any employer.
I am well aware that there are many honest employees who "call in sick" only when they are really sick. But this is not the norm. Even the term "call in sick" is a developed-country term. In third-world T&T, hardly anyone calls in sick. You know they were "sick" when they don't show up for work and apply for sick leave when they do.
Compare this to England, say, where a teacher is required to call in one hour before school starts to notify the Principal that he/she is ill so that a relief teacher can be sourced or supervision planned.
Which brings me to the "sick" nurses at the San Fernando General Hospital. First, though, let me commend those dedicated nurses, of which there are many in the system, who are committed to their profession and will not do anything to intentionally jeopardise their patients' health. However, there are some who, apparently, couldn't care less about the possible dire consequences of their actions.
I asked a Trini doctor who works in a British hospital what is the norm there. He said that, generally speaking, the nurses are committed to ensuring the well-being of their patients and will not call in sick when they are not. He said that, sometimes, nurses who are sick show up for work and have to be sent home. Here we have the opposite problem of not-sick employees not going to work.
Of course, the union leaders will question how can you tell that the employee is not sick. True enough, to some extent. (And you can always find a "sick-leave" doctor to certify you as sick.) But sick leave abuse is so endemic in T&T that if one were to assume that all employees who claim "sick" are not sick, there is a high probability that you would be correct.
Countries like England, USA and Canada are filled with Trinis who dare not abuse sick leave benefits. So why do they do it here? For the same reason they obey all the traffic rules there but, here, would drive on the shoulder, occupy the left or right turn lane when they intend to go straight, and run red lights. There, they would suffer the consequences but not here. (As an aside, it's the same reason that criminals feel emboldened here–little chance of detection and prosecution.)
But, consequences aside, the Trinis abroad are conforming to what is expected, and what is the norm, in those societies. They do the same here but our norms are different.
The sick leave issue with nurses at San Fernando General is just a mere symptom of the general malaise of indiscipline that plagues our country and stymies every attempt at progress. As my former, now-retired colleague from Germany, Professor Posthoff, used to say to me: Trinidad would be the perfect place to live, if only there was a bit more "order and discipline."
Noel Kalicharan
Via e-mail