Guards at the Education Ministry are underpaid

Nov 17, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Kindly permit me a space in your newspaper to highlight the plight of the guards working with the private contractors for the Ministry of Education.
We the guards, guarding the schools, are being paid $2.02 per hour weekdays. Saturday and Sunday we are being paid $3.03 per hour. We are not getting the minimum wage of $2.55 per hour.
Another budget is almost to be presented and up to now we haven’t received the 2017 minimum wage. We are not getting off duty with pay.
If we take a day, our employers takes it out of our salary. So most times we are forced not to take any off duty, because of the money being taken out of our salaries.
We would really like the President and the Minister of Labour to look into our matter because we the guards, guarding the schools are being treated like slaves.
When we ask our employers they keep saying that the Ministry hasn’t given them any increase to give us. We the guards would like to know if the Government is demanding that other people pay workers the minimum wage of $255 per hour while the Ministry of Education must pay guards $ 2.02 per hour.
Mr President and the Minister of Labour, please look into the guard’s plight. We do not even get clothes allowances or bonuses. We have to buy our shirts and they give us a jersey for $1,500 which we have to pay for every three or four years. And we are forced to wear it only at the worksite and not on the road.
Concerned guard
Cheryl Myles

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