The Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Union (BIG­WU) has ac­cused the CEPEP Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed and the Gov­ern­ment of dis­guis­ing an em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship to de­ny 11,500 work­ers their law­ful rights.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, BIG­WU said the mass dis­missal of work­ers on June 27, fol­low­ing the ter­mi­na­tion of 300 CEPEP con­trac­tors, was not mere­ly an ad­min­is­tra­tive de­ci­sion but a “hu­man cri­sis.”

The union said CEPEP’s po­si­tion that the work­ers were em­ployed by con­trac­tors and not the com­pa­ny it­self was “false” and amount­ed to “dis­guised em­ploy­ment.”

BIG­WU ar­gued that CEPEP is the true em­ploy­er of the dis­missed work­ers, point­ing to sev­er­al fac­tors, in­clud­ing di­rect su­per­vi­sion, per­for­mance as­sess­ment, work sched­ul­ing, timesheet re­views, and pay­ment au­tho­ri­sa­tion.

“If CEPEP di­rects the work, su­per­vis­es the work, eval­u­ates the work, and most im­por­tant­ly, pays the wages — then CEPEP is the em­ploy­er. No amount of dis­guise can change that le­gal fact,” the state­ment read.

The union said the dis­missal stripped work­ers of ba­sic rights such as sick leave, va­ca­tion leave, tenure, recog­ni­tion of ser­vice, free­dom of as­so­ci­a­tion, and the right to col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing.

“These 11,500 work­ers are car­ry­ing out CEPEP’s core func­tion: pro­tect­ing, en­hanc­ing, and beau­ti­fy­ing the en­vi­ron­ment of this na­tion. That is not con­tract work. That is em­ploy­ment — plain and sim­ple,” the re­lease added.

BIG­WU has called on af­fect­ed work­ers to join the union as it pre­pares to trig­ger Sec­tion 2(4)(b) of the In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Act, seek­ing a court de­c­la­ra­tion that CEPEP is their em­ploy­er.

Ac­cord­ing to the union, such a de­c­la­ra­tion would en­ti­tle the work­ers to re­in­state­ment, dam­ages for their dis­missal, and full com­pen­sa­tion for their years of ser­vice.

BIG­WU warned that it in­tends to pur­sue the mat­ter with “every le­gal and in­dus­tri­al weapon” avail­able.

“We put The CEPEP Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed and the Gov­ern­ment on no­tice: dis­guised em­ploy­ment is a fraud on the law, and this Union will tear away that dis­guise. We will not rest un­til every CEPEP work­er is recog­nised, re­in­stat­ed, and com­pen­sat­ed,” the union said.

“This is more than a fight for jobs. This is a fight to end the era of dis­guised em­ploy­ment in this coun­try once and for all.”