SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Em­ploy­ees on short term con­tracts at the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices have been giv­en ter­mi­na­tion let­ters. The work­ers’ last day of work is June 30.

How­ev­er, in a strange twist, the work­ers whose jobs are on the line told the T&T Guardian that peo­ple are be­ing in­ter­viewed for the very po­si­tions which they now hold. But it is still un­clear how many em­ploy­ees will be sent home.

In a let­ter dat­ed April 25, signed by the min­istry’s per­ma­nent sec­re­tary and head­ed “End of Short Term Con­tract,” which the T&T Guardian ob­tained, the min­istry thanked the work­ers for the ser­vices they pro­vid­ed. The let­ter was is­sued to field of­fi­cers in the So­cial Wel­fare Di­vi­sion.

“As pre­vi­ous­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ed to you, this let­ter serves to con­firm your en­gage­ment on short term em­ploy­ment with ef­fect from your date of as­sump­tion of du­ty to June 30, 2018 with non-re­ten­tion,” the let­ter stat­ed.

The work­ers were asked to re­turn all items is­sued to them by the min­istry be­fore June 30.

In ear­ly April, staff mem­bers were giv­en no­ti­fi­ca­tion that they were be­ing dis­missed. How­ev­er, less than 24 hours af­ter re­ceiv­ing that bad news, some em­ploy­ees re­ceived a sec­ond email in­form­ing them that there was no dis­missal. But yes­ter­day, these em­ploy­ees re­ceived their dis­missal let­ters.

Last Ju­ly, the min­istry did not re­new the con­tracts for 200 work­ers from the Food Card Di­vi­sion.

Calls to Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vice Cher­rie-Ann Crichlow-Cock­burn went unan­swered and she did not re­spond to a text mes­sage about the dis­missals.