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Berbice Sweeper/cleaners receiving irregular and late payments

Jan 16, 2012 News

Sweeper/Cleaners attached to several Berbice schools have complained about the irregular and late payments that they have been experiencing for a very long time. They have not been paid for November 2011, even though they were paid for the two weeks of school time which they worked in December. Sweeper/Cleaners are employed directly under the Regional Democratic Council and work six hours per day in each school, from 7:00am- 10:00am and then again from 2:30pm- 5:30pm. They sign a five-month contract with the RDC and this is up for renewal twice per year. They work throughout the year, except July and August, since schools are closed.
Kaieteur News spoke to a few cleaners who expressed disgust over the late payments. They related that those cleaners, whose names are on the normal teachers’ pay sheets that arrive at the end of each month, do not encounter the problem of irregular and late payments. They are calling for their names to be included with those on the teachers’ pay sheets, so that they would be paid the same time when teachers receive their monthly salaries.
“When it [their names] is on the pay sheet, you draw your salary every time teachers draw theirs,” said one cleaner.
“This is an ongoing problem; like how this is January, we gonna get it [January pay] till March,” said another cleaner, who has been working for over two years now.
“We get bills to pay”, said another.
The cleaners are also asking that they be employed during the August school holidays so that they can clean the schools more efficiently since the children are not in the building during those months “to disturb us”.
Also, they want better representation from the National Insurance Scheme, since they do not pay any NIS.
“We working and we don’t get any benefits. They [NIS] said that we gotta pay it [the contributions] off our own,” said a cleaner.
They would like the NIS to be deducted automatically. Many of the Sweeper/Cleaners are afraid to speak openly about the issues that are affecting them.
They are also upset that they do not benefit from the salary increases that other sections of the working population receive as announced by the government. Several attempts to solicit a comment from the Accounting Unit of the RDC proved futile.

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