Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Pub­lic ser­vants re­turned to work yes­ter­day as the Pub­lic Ser­vice re­opened in the kick-off of Phase 3 of the re­open­ing plan an­nounced by af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced on Sat­ur­day.

Al­so re­opened in this phase were NL­CB Lot­to ser­vices, re­tail stores and malls which will close at 6 pm dai­ly.

Many pub­lic of­fi­cers were cued out­side their of­fices wait­ing to be screened be­fore be­ing al­lowed in­to their of­fices.

The cues were a stark re­minder of the new norm brought about by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

The re­turn of pub­lic ser­vants will be phased, with man­agers asked to re­port first. Sub­or­di­nate work­ers will fol­low on a ro­ta­tion­al ba­sis.

The rein­tro­duc­tion of pub­lic of­fi­cers in­to the sys­tem did not sit well with the Pres­i­dent of the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion, Wat­son Duke.

He warned the Prime Min­is­ter that work­ers are watch­ing the gov­ern­ment with their eyes fo­cused on their rights.

Duke said, “I am mon­i­tor­ing it. At the end of the week I am go­ing to be able to say more. I am not par­tic­u­lar­ly hap­py with the way it was done with­out con­sul­ta­tion. It was done based on a ‘vaps’ and enough is enough. He has to learn to con­sult.”

Duke added that he does not think the work­place may not be ful­ly pre­pared for a full rein­tro­duc­tion, in­sist­ing work should be done on a phased ba­sis.