By Chantale Fletcher
COUVA South MP Rudranath Indarsingh is describing the announcement for public servants to be vaccinated in order to receive salaries as “conmanship and deception of the highest order.”
In a release on Monday, Indarsingh said, “This country is in a position of double-digit daily deaths and triple-digit infection numbers for Covid-19 due to the failure of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and his government to simply do their job and keep this country safe.
“We have moved from blaming Kamla to blaming Covid, and now to blaming unvaccinated citizens and public servants.”
He stated it was unconscionable that within a year of praising public servants for being frontline heroes against the Covid virus, the prime minister now threatened their salaries.
Indarsingh asked several questions:
- What would happen to public servants making mortgage payments?
- What will be the impact on NIS and health surcharge payments?
- What will be the ability of these officers to take care of their families?
He said there were many other components in the fight against Covid-19 that have collapsed under this Government.
“Reports have emerged that public offices are not being sanitised, that sanitiser is not being provided for public servants nor the public, that social distancing has not been enforced and that contact tracing has collapsed.”
He also asked whether the Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) has been active and mobile in ensuring that workplaces in and out of the public sector comply with guidelines in the Public Health Ordinance?
Indarsingh said, “Making vaccines mandatory for pay is a change in the terms of conditions of employment for public servants. Such changes in terms and conditions can only be done by the Public Service Commission, and the Prime Minister was being unilateral, high handed and out of touch as usual.”
He asked whether there were consultations with the various trade union movements with members involved in the public service and subsidiaries.
Indarsingh said, “We are here because of many deficiencies, including the government’s failure to consult with labour. This government has had an anti-worker, anti-union approach to its rule, and their decision to make vaccinations mandatory without consultation is proof of this.
“It was evident that the prime minister is politically pressuring and bullying the independence of the Industrial Court and its judgements.”
