Reporter
carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt
Enough is enough!
This was the sentiment among several security officers from Special Elite Investigation Services Limited when they spoke to Guardian Media outside the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) on Thursday, expressing their grievances with the company.
The primary concern of the employees was the consistent delays in salary payments, which they said were severely impacting their personal lives.
Security officer Karen Lynch explained, “It was in October this whole problem take place. Real bad pay, real problems. Every six weeks she ain’t paying, she giving you one salary and then after forcing you to come out to work and if you ain’t come out she will hit you a charge, that is what going on,” she said.
Lynch, who has been with the company for four years, said she took pride in her job but struggled to meet her responsibilities due to the salary delays, which often occurred during the July-August vacation or around Christmas.
“My child could not go to school for the longest while, the teachers wanted to know why. They said they will call social services,” she added.
Lynch wasn’t the only one affected. Guardian Media learned that the company’s workers are stationed at the Arima Hospital, Couva Children’s Hospital, and Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital in Mount Hope.
Khadija Campbell also shared her difficulties, saying, “This cause me to get disconnected from T&TEC. I am in arrears with WASA, I get disconnected from Digicel, I can’t buy groceries for my children and them. I have a daughter who attends Bishop Anstey, I can barely support her and she’s doing extremely well right now,” she said.
Another employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “As a father with one son, 14 years, he’s not able to go to school, I’m not able to buy clothes for him, toiletries etc.”
New mother Trishnail Roberts revealed that the company still owes her for December 2023, and upon visiting the National Insurance Board, she found that no payments had been made. “Pressure went so high that I almost died with the baby,” she said.
The employees said they were told that the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) was responsible for the delays. However, a former divisional manager, Hayden Ochoa, denied this claim, saying, “I used to do up the invoice; I have documentation where they were paid.”
Managing director Jason Reyes and CEO Karen Rowans-Reyes of Special Elite Investigation Services Limited denied the claims. Rowans-Reyes mentioned that they had recently dismissed two workers for theft and wished the aggrieved employees had spoken to her first, as the claims were new to her.
“My husband and I both went to the compound and paid workers personally,” she said, adding that only one salary was outstanding and NIS payments were up to date.
Reyes provided Guardian Media with a police report filed against Ochoa at the San Fernando Police Station for threats.
Guardian Media contacted Davlin Thomas, CEO of the NCRHA, who said that payments to the company were up to date.
The workers are now calling on the Ministry of Labour and the Fraud Squad to investigate.