Kali­fa Clyne

Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke has been slammed by his own em­ploy­ees who com­plained of be­ing forced to work in "sick build­ings."Duke, who is known for be­ing vo­cal over poor work­ing con­di­tions and en­cour­ag­ing em­ploy­ees to with­hold their ser­vices over health and safe­ty vi­o­la­tions, faced a walk­out by some em­ploy­ees yes­ter­day.

About 14 PSA em­ploy­ees, rep­re­sent­ed by the Bank­ing In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU), re­fused to work yes­ter­day amid com­plaints of im­prop­er bath­room fa­cil­i­ties, lack of an emer­gency ex­it, no fire cer­tifi­cates and oth­er Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Health and Safe­ty Act (OS­HA) vi­o­la­tions.The 14 em­ploy­ees were moved from the PSA's main build­ing on Aber­crom­by Street to a small­er build­ing next door, al­so owned by the union.

Em­ploy­ees start­ed at the new build­ing yes­ter­day morn­ing."This build­ing, the first floor is a wood­en floor and it feels un­safe. The wash­room is dif­fi­cult for one of the em­ploy­ees who is in a wheel­chair to en­ter. The cor­ri­dor is a space of three feet," Fran­cis said.He said there was an elec­tri­cal is­sue, no fire alarm, ex­posed wires and that there was no fire cer­tifi­cate."These two build­ings will not pass an in­spec­tion."

Em­ploy­ees, who were afraid to be vic­timised and with­held their names, said they had raised the is­sues with Duke be­fore."Since 2010 when he came in­to of­fice, he promised us that he would ad­dress the is­sues. We tried to be pa­tient but it has gone on too long now. Some­thing must be done."

DUKE: FRIV­O­LOUS COM­PLAINTS

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Duke said the com­plaints be­ing made were friv­o­lous and were an at­tempt by BIG­WU to en­gage the PSA in friv­o­li­ty."What they are talk­ing about is friv­o­lous. Ceil­ing tiles falling down, that is noth­ing," Duke said.He said BIG­WU was try­ing to de­stroy the PSA and ques­tioned whether the em­ploy­ees were try­ing to be vex­a­tious. "They want us to spend mon­ey that we do not have."

Duke said he had re­ceived no of­fi­cial com­plaints from ei­ther the union or the em­ploy­ees but did not ob­ject to work­ing on the sit­u­a­tion."I am a stick­ler for health and safe­ty. We have al­ready start­ed work­ing on the is­sues."He said the em­ploy­ees were moved so that the PSA could rent out the first floor of its build­ing in or­der to mon­e­tise the PSA's as­sets as man­dat­ed by its mem­bers.