What about us? This was the question posed by Joshua Johnson the president of the Union of Member Clubs and Lottery Workers yesterday as he called for the opening of private member clubs across the country.
“Part of the gaming industry is opened. The Lotto booths are back out, the Play Whe booths are back out. But the employees who work at the Private Members’ Clubs are still in lockdown. They have been home for approximately 118 days without employment, without salary,” Johnson said.
“No one in that section, those comrades of ours, not a single one of them got the Salary Relief Grant even though all of the promises were made. No one got the grant,” he said.
Johnson wrote Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh with his plight on Monday.
Johnson said a significant portion of the approximately 30,000 workers in the Private Members’ Clubs are single mothers, and given the reopening of schools income is necessary.
“So right now you have an issue where you have single mothers with dependent children who are suffering from nervousness, anxiety, depression and, of course, whatever underlying medical or health issues they had are coming back because they don’t know when their next meal is coming from and it is a bit distressing,” he said.
Johnson said the Private Members’ Clubs have put situations in place to ensure proper sanitisation.
“Now you have a situation where the ministry of health would have approved a reopening manual where they were trained in how to clean, how to sanitise so you have protocols being established where guests cannot come in without washing their hands. And when they come in temperatures are checked. Before they move from the reception area they get sanitised. Every time they move from whatever device they are playing the entire station is sanitised, bathrooms are sanitised so the entire environment is very safe,” Johnson said.
“So any risk of COVID-19 spreading is mitigated. They do not have any congregating. They do not have any eating indoors at all. No indoor dining in any way so the masks are not taken down so that environment is pretty safe,” he said.
Johnson said employees at the Private Members’ Clubs also pay national insurance, health surcharge and personal income tax.
And when the call was made for vaccination approximately 95 per cent stepped up and did what was required.
“We are saying that we need to go back out to work. Right not you have creditors harassing us, you have people being evicted, they are even being coerced into sexual favours for rental accommodation. This is serious and of course they feel overwhelmed, they feel nervous, they feel anxious, and to boot, they feel unfairly treated,” he said.