Dur­ing the month of March, the COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions were im­posed up­on the na­tion with the no­tion that you sani­tise and re­main at home leave on­ly if there is a ur­gent need. Most pub­lic and pri­vate em­ploy­ees re­mained at home, some with pay and oth­ers not so lucky.

A stim­u­lus plan was in­tro­duced through the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board, that a sum of $2,000 be giv­en for three months to those em­ploy­ees who make NIS con­tri­bu­tions month­ly and were not be­ing paid a salary due to the shut­down of their place of em­ploy­ment.

This has flopped in two ways— some have not to date re­ceived any pay­ment, al­though they have ap­plied, sec­ond­ly, there are dis­hon­est em­ploy­ers who have de­duct­ed NIS con­tri­bu­tions from em­ploy­ees month­ly, but have re­fused to make these pay­ments to the board.

We the peo­ple of T&T would have learnt some­thing from this virus scare that will make us a bet­ter State.

Our health sys­tem laws and the in­jus­tice been hand­ed down to those at the low­er end of our em­ploy­ee and em­ploy­er re­la­tion­ship need to be ad­dressed.

The health sys­tem needs to be reg­u­lat­ed and the laws en­forced. One ex­am­ple is con­tin­u­ous vis­its by health in­spec­tors to food es­tab­lish­ments and road­side food ven­dors, and premis­es where food is pre­pared.

We need to ad­dress the sit­u­a­tion where em­ploy­ers are tak­ing ad­van­tage of em­ploy­ees by de­duct­ing Na­tion­al In­sur­ance con­tri­bu­tions but are not sub­mit­ting them to the NIB. This de­prives those in need of every dol­lar at the twi­light of re­tire­ment.

These em­ploy­ers ought to be in­ves­ti­gat­ed and speed­i­ly brought be­fore the Courts of T&T.