Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Soon-to-be ex-chair­man of the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty Ravin­dra Nan­ga, SC, says a de­ci­sion not to re­new the con­tracts of some 400 em­ploy­ees was not done out of mal­ice.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Nan­ga re­spond­ed to com­plaints that the work­ers, hired as field sur­vey­ors, were be­ing sent home with­out warn­ing.

Nan­ga ex­plained that the em­ploy­ees, hired in De­cem­ber last year, were short-term em­ploy­ees whose con­tracts end­ed on April 30. He added that a re­quest was made to ex­tend the con­tracts but as chair­man, he de­cid­ed against it.

“I as chair­man did not think that it was prop­er for this board, this out­go­ing board to ex­tend any con­tracts with the im­mi­nent ap­point­ment of a new min­is­ter. So, whether or not those con­tracts will be ex­tend­ed would be a mat­ter for the new min­is­ter and the new in­com­ing board.

“I did not think it was prop­er, in keep­ing with the high­est tra­di­tions, that cer­tain­ly my­self, as chair­man of the board, should be act­ing on any non-ad­min­is­tra­tive mat­ters fol­low­ing the out­come of the elec­tions.”

A for­mer em­ploy­ee told Guardian Me­dia that they were hired with­out con­tracts and paid $9,167 be­fore tax from De­cem­ber last year af­ter un­der­go­ing a four-day train­ing pro­gramme. The field sur­vey­ors were giv­en T-shirts, badges and tablets to per­form their du­ties. The badges were sup­posed to ex­pire on De­cem­ber 9 next year.

On Wednes­day, a mes­sage was re­port­ed­ly sent to them say­ing: “We have not re­ceived ap­proval to con­tin­ue be­yond to­day.”

The em­ploy­ee said he felt hurt by the dis­missal.

Asked about the lack of con­tracts for the work­ers, Nan­ga said that was not the purview of the board.

“The board does not go about draft­ing con­tracts. At that lev­el of the field of­fi­cers, I, as chair­man, would not be re­quired to sign those con­tracts. That would have been up to the HR de­part­ment. I can’t con­firm that. If, in fact, no con­tracts were giv­en to them, that would be a mat­ter for the HR di­rec­tor to an­swer to.”

The ex-em­ploy­ee said he was sur­prised by the ter­mi­na­tion adding that they had a lot of out­stand­ing work to get done.

“I was very ex­cit­ed about my first-ever job. So, I was very ex­cit­ed. So, I felt su­per, you know, dis­ap­point­ed. I wasn’t hap­py at all, many of us.”