Ken Ali

Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters Colm Im­bert and Mustapha Ab­dul-Hamid are com­ing un­der in­tense heat from op­po­si­tion par­lia­men­tar­i­an Dr Roodal Mooni­lal. The op­po­si­tion spokesman on labour, Mooni­lal has called on Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning to fire Im­bert and Ab­dul-Hamid over the abort­ed at­tempts to de­cer­ti­fy trade unions rep­re­sent­ing work­ers at PTSC and TSTT. Im­bert, as Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port, is the line min­is­ter for PTSC, while Ab­dul-Hamid has over­sight re­spon­si­bil­i­ty at TSTT. Mooni­lal urged Man­ning to dis­miss the min­is­ters for their al­leged "ig­no­rance over the sin­is­ter moves" to de­cer­ti­fy Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al work­ers' Union at PTSC and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers' Union at TSTT.

The op­po­si­tion MP in­sist­ed that "nei­ther min­is­ter was aware of the vi­cious bids by the two en­ter­pris­es to un­seat the trade unions with bar­gain­ing sta­tus." He al­so crit­i­cised the Cab­i­net, stat­ing that this body was re­spon­si­ble for giv­ing "gen­er­al di­rec­tion and con­trol" on ma­jor de­ci­sions by State en­ter­pris­es. Ac­cord­ing to Mooni­lal, Labour Min­is­ter Ren­nie Du­mas is al­so at fault, since he has "a solemn re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to main­tain in­dus­tri­al peace and up­hold good in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions prin­ci­ples." He said the re­spec­tive boards were "per­mit­ted to bru­tal­ly at­tempt to de­cer­ti­fy two trade unions with long-held bar­gain­ing sta­tus." Mooni­lal said: "It proves that Mr Du­mas has vir­tu­al­ly aban­doned his min­is­te­r­i­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty."