PUBLIC servants are “hurt to the core” by a suggestion of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley that they are lazy.
Speaking at a handing-over ceremony at the Police Academy in St James on Wednesday, Rowley said the quality of the Public Service had declined.
He said, “We have a lot of people on the payroll. Many of them produce absolutely nothing when the day come, collect a salary at the end of the month and make the most noise when the pay is late.”
But in response, president of the Public Services Association (PSA) Watson Duke in a Facebook video on Thursday said there were some public servants who arrive at work at 8 a.m. but don’t leave until 6 p.m.
Duke said Rowley’s comments “worries me, it worries all 80,000 public servants of this country. And it hurts us to the core.”
He said, “It says to that mother, that father, that good worker who leaves South at 4 a.m. to come to Port-of-Spain for an 8 a.m. job and leaves work at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to get home, that your efforts are not recognised.”
Duke added, “I want to tell Keith Christopher Rowley this morning that before you take the speck out of the eye of public servants, take the plank out of yours. When you point in this direction you have four fingers pointing back at you. Think before you speak.
“Furthermore, we want to tell you, as one politician told another in the Parliament, shut your stink mouth. Every time you seem to speak, you seem to speak foul language to hurt and denigrate people.
“Even though this PNM Government would have bailed out a toilet paper factory for some ($30) million thereabout, today in the Immigration Division, in Treasury, in foreign services, in many Government offices there remains no toilet paper and workers must walk with toilet paper from home.”
