Corey Connelly
WITH just days to go before Christmas, some 15 workers from a unit at the THA Division of Settlements, Public Utilities and Rural Development are reportedly being sent home.
Minority Leader Kelvon Morris spoke about the issue during a news conference at his office in Scarborough, Tobago, on December 20.
He told reporters, “I understand that at the Division of Settlements, the administrator would have kept a meeting on the instructions of the secretary indicating that a unit that has been there for years, as long as I know the Division of Settlements, providing yeoman service, support services, that just before the Christmas season they are being told that their services will no longer be required.”
What is even more hurtful, Morris said, is that the notice does not even allow the workers three months to prepare themselves for termination.
“As far as I understand it would be with immediate effect once they get the letters, which they are to receive sometime at the end of the month.”
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He continued, “So imagine, we are into Christmas and you, as an individual with your family, are being told that you no longer, starting in 2025, will be earning an income, an income that you have known for maybe all your life, an income that you would have also made commitments on.
“You would have taken loans, you have your rent to pay and you are being terminated, told your service and your unit is no longer required.”
Morris claimed the workers were being fired at a time when “there is a unit being created (at the division) where persons are being paid ridiculous amounts of money.
“So much so that their pay is even close to or even more than the administrator, their pay is even more than the assistant secretary, their pay is even more than the Minority Leader, their pay is even more than people who are actually working.”
The Darrel Spring/Whim assemblyman claimed the division had set up a rural development unit in which the co-ordinator was receiving a monthly salary of over $25,000, while the deputy coordinator was getting $22,000.
“So the person who you are paying $25,000 need help and the person who helping them getting $22,000. But the person who earning they little $5,000, $6,000, you are sending that person home without any means of where their next bread is coming from.”
Morris recalled in the Farley Augustine-led THA administration had campaigned on “bread-and-butter issues” ahead of the December 6, 2021, THA elections.
“They told you they would fix it and the Chief Secretary guaranteeing you, contract workers, you will not use your jobs.”
To date, he claimed, over 550 Tobagonians, under the direction of this Chief Secretary, have lost their jobs while “known propogandists” of the party are being well-paid.
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Up to publication time, Secretary of Settlements Ian Pollard did not respond to calls or WhatsApp messages from Newsday about the issue.
