Gail Alexan­der

Labour Min­is­ter Er­rol Mcleod must en­sure that thou­sands of con­tract work­ers now in dan­ger of be­ing re­trenched by the PP Gov­ern­ment get their just due, for­mer PSA pres­i­dent Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus has said.

Bap­tiste-Primus made the state­ment while ad­dress­ing a PNM lo­cal gov­ern­ment cam­paign meet­ing in St James. Stat­ing that thou­sands of such work­ers are in dan­ger of be­ing re­trenched at the end of their con­tract, Bap­tiste-Primus al­so ex­pressed con­cerns re­gard­ing pub­lic ser­vice cuts. In her de­but on the PNM plat­form, Bap­tiste- Primus said she was mo­ti­vat­ed to join the PNM since it was the most durable, dis­ci­plined and sta­ble par­ty.

She said the PNM needs new blood if it is to re­cov­er and it is cur­rent­ly in the process of be­ing "re­ju­ve­nat­ed, ren­er­gised and re-en­gi­neered." Bap­tiste-Primus said the PP set out to fool the pub­lic and had done an "ex­cel­lent job 29 to 12" in May. But she said in the short time in gov­er­anance, the signs that the pub­lic was fooled were now emerg­ing. She said all con­tract of­fi­cers could be fired at the end of their con­tract and are now at the mer­cy of PP min­is­ters. Bap­tiste-Primus said thou­sands of such work­ers will be out of jobs by year end and the sit­u­a­tion had start­ed al­ready at em­bassies and T&T mis­sions.

She said this was harsh and not in keep­ing with good in­dus­tri­al prac­tice. Con­tracts and va­ca­tion leave should be bought out by the Gov­ern­ment in­stead, Bap­tiste- Primus said. "It is un­ac­cept­able con­tract work­ers should be ter­mi­nat­ed with­out com­pen­sa­tion," she added, call­ing on the Prime Min­is­ter to en­sure work­ers' just due.

"I'm sure Com­rade Er­rol McLeod would agree with me," Bap­tiste-Primus added. Ex­press­ing con­cern about the se­cu­ri­ty of tenure of T&T's 37,000 pub­lic of­fi­cers, Bap­tiste-Primus aid she was fear­ful that cuts could be in­flict­ed at this lev­el since Fi­nance Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an and Plan­ning Min­is­ter Mary King have said the Trea­sury is "emp­ty" and al­lud­ed to tax­es and cut­backs. She warned the pub­lic that the PP could em­bark on the same try of cuts which the NAR did in 1986.