Mass so­cial up­heaval will take place if em­ploy­ers con­tin­ue to take ad­van­tage of work­ers by forc­ing them to pro­ceed on no-pay leave, un­paid va­ca­tion or re­trench­ment says pres­i­dent of the Fed­er­a­tion of In­de­pen­dent Trade Unions Joseph Re­my.

He was speak­ing amid re­ports that hun­dreds of work­ers were now on the bread­line be­cause of COVID-19 re­stric­tions.

Re­my said some em­ploy­ers were tak­ing ad­van­tage of work­ers at a time when the world was fac­ing a hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis.

He added the Em­ploy­ers Con­sul­ta­tive As­so­ci­a­tion and the Min­istry of Labour must do more to en­sure that work­ers do not face all the bur­den. He not­ed that sev­er­al com­pa­nies had sent home work­ers with­out pay. “I am deeply con­cerned and as a mem­ber of the tri­par­tite ad­vi­so­ry coun­cil, ILO reg­u­la­tions should be ad­hered to in terms of how em­ploy­ers were treat­ing the work­ers. We hope that COVID-19 is not used to vic­timise and take ad­van­tage of work­ers,” Re­my said.

He added that Fi­tun and the Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre were work­ing on putting some­thing to­geth­er.

Re­my said he was hap­py the ECA was do­ing sem­i­nars to guide the em­ploy­ers about un­fair work prac­tices.

Fi­tun will be putting mea­sures in place to reach out to un­rep­re­sent­ed work­ers. He said any­one with com­plaints can con­tact Fi­tun at fi­tun@ya­hoo.com.

Gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the Joint Trade Union Move­ment Ozzi War­wick said JTUM has al­so been hear­ing about com­pa­nies lay­ing off work­ers.

“This is a hu­man cri­sis…My mes­sage is for peo­ple to stay at home. It is a se­ri­ous thing, thou­sands are dy­ing.”

He called on the Min­is­ter of Labour to crack down on er­rant busi­ness­peo­ple.