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Rose Hall workers back to work after downing tools over pay
Over 30 workers from the Rose Hall Town Council who downed their tools and were on strike from Thursday, were back at work from yesterday morning.
The Rose Hall Town Council building
Labourers back at work cleaning a section of the market.
This was confirmed by the Head of the Constabulary Department Winston Smith.
Smith, however added that they are scheduled to meet with their union representative on Monday to discuss and find resolutions to the ongoing issue of demanding that minimum wage be paid to them.
According to Smith, the Council has not been making provisions to generate finances to pay the staff “back-pay owed to us from January-July, some $19,000 per month”. He pointed out that a meeting was held with the Mayor and Councillors two weeks ago and all the heads of departments were asked to come up with ideas to generate finances to keep the council and the staff going.
“The Council is not making provisions to generate money to pay the staff. We had made a recommendation to have persons, vendors pay to use the parking lot, but they seem not to want to do that. They haven’t given us any grounds to show that they can generate the money to give us the back-pay. When are we gonna get that?” Smith stressed.
He added that the car park, which was recently rehabilitated was in the past used by vendors and persons, but a fee was paid to park their vehicle. That system, he said, was active when the previous Mayor (Ramoo) held the office, but was discontinued under the stewardship of the current mayor Chattergoon Ramnauth.
Smith said that since the council has not met their demands and the union has failed to negotiate properly on their behalf, they are prepared to withdraw financial contributions from the union.
“The union representative was there on Wednesday and he told us to go on strike from 6:00 on Thursday because the council failed to reach our demands.
We wanted to strike since two weeks ago, but the union negotiated with them and said to pay $10,000 and then they told the Council that after they can sit with us to decide when they will pay the retroactive. He gave them an ultimatum (24 hrs). Council including the Mayor was to meet with us today (Friday) but they cancelled last-minute. The mayor has not spoken to workers since the strike started and was called off this morning (Friday)”, the head of Constabulary said.
He explained that they were striking for the minimum wage to be paid to them since they are receiving below the minimum wage ($44,000). The Council when they met with the workers had stated that a 16% increase would be paid; however, that increase was never received, workers said.
Smith said they will continue the strike on Monday if an agreement is not met between them, the union and the Town Council.
Efforts to contact Mayor Ramnauth on the issue proved futile.
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