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Workers at the Public Works Corporation protest layoff of 16 employees
Protesting employees at the Dominica Public Works Corporation say they are standing in solidarity with sixteen (16) of their fellow employees who were sent home.
Last week Thursday, a number of workers were issued open-ended letters informing them that they were being laid off effective April 2, 2010. 10. The workers were told that that the Corporation could no longer meet its financial obligations to them.
The decision to terminate the sixteen employees was apparently undertaken without any dialogue with the workers or their union, the Public Service Union. Affected employees say they were simply handed their walking papers upon return to the office on Thursday afternoon.
Striking workers say they are particularly upset about the lack of dialoged. “The guys that are going home are the ones who worked hard and if at all they were going to do such a thing, they could dialogue with the workers and the union and something could be done. But just coming to work and telling you that there’s a letter for you , you are going home and you cannot work, is out of the question” one worker said.
The employees are also protesting what they claim to be the callous and disrespectful way in which they are being treated. They say management is insensitive to their plight. “We cannot be continued to be disrespected in such a manner” one man protested. “We are of the opinion that management is not doing what it is supposed to do to ensure that we are employed and continue to be employed in the institution. After having to make the sacrifices that we are making presently…then we are being told that some of us have to go home because there is no money. And that’s not so much of the problem but there is no dialogue.” he said.
Standing in solidarity with the workers also was Thomas Letang, General Secretary of the PSU. He strongly condemned the Corporation’s decision to terminate the 16 workers and pledged to defend their cause. “These are the people who have made a lot of sacrifices and we do not take it lightly that they are being sent home and we are strongly and totally behind them all and will do everything that we have to do to ensure that this decision is reversed and that the people are given continued employment” he said.
