KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

The Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) is ac­cus­ing T&TEC and the Min­istry of Health of col­lud­ing to cov­er up the im­pact of tu­ber­cu­lo­sis (TB) among the com­mis­sion’s em­ploy­ees.

At a me­dia con­fer­ence out­side T&TEC’s Cen­tral Ware­hous­ing in Cal­i­for­nia yes­ter­day, Ro­get said that while there were five con­firmed cas­es among at T&TEC, the union knows of three sus­pect­ed cas­es. He said both bod­ies do not want cit­i­zens to know the ex­act fig­ure of those suf­fer­ing from the ill­ness. He said the em­ploy­ees are cur­rent­ly in the pub­lic health sys­tem.

Last Sun­day, Guardian re­port­ed that em­ploy­ees at two of the Com­mis­sion’s cen­tral of­fices had ac­cused man­age­ment of con­ceal­ing a TB out­break. It fol­lowed iso­la­tion of a fe­male em­ploy­ee at the Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal in El Do­ra­do af­ter she test­ed pos­i­tive for the dis­ease in ear­ly March. She was sta­tioned at the Cal­i­for­nia ware­house while four oth­er em­ploy­ees at the Point Lisas Dis­tri­b­u­tion Cen­tre test­ed pos­i­tive for a la­tent TB but were not hos­pi­talised.

“There is a ma­jor cov­er-up with re­spect to in­for­ma­tion, with re­spect to the spread of and the in­ci­dents of tu­ber­cu­lo­sis here in T&TEC in Cen­tral. We have some five cas­es con­firmed and three ad­di­tion­al cas­es now be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed. Now that is cause for se­ri­ous con­cern,” Ro­get said.

On Mon­day, Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh said there was no TB out­break at the com­mis­sion’s fa­cil­i­ties. Speak­ing in the Sen­ate, Deyals­ingh said that there was one a case and the em­ploy­ee who had con­tract­ed TB hap­pened to work in both of­fices. He as­sured that all stan­dard pro­ce­dures were fol­lowed and that pub­lic health sen­si­ti­sa­tion ses­sions were held with the em­ploy­ees. 

On April 11, the union sent a let­ter to T&TEC, re­quest­ing an ur­gent meet­ing with the Com­mis­sion’s ex­ec­u­tive to dis­cuss the in­ci­dents of TB and the plan go­ing for­ward in ac­cor­dance with the OSH Act. Sec­tion 25 (1) of the Act man­dates that every em­ploy­er en­sures that his or her em­ploy­ees are pro­vid­ed with health sur­veil­lance that is ap­pro­pri­ate, hav­ing re­gard to the risks to their safe­ty and health which are iden­ti­fied by the an­nu­al risk as­sess­ment.

Ro­get de­scribed the com­mis­sion’s ap­proach as lais­sez-faire as he said the union had to im­ple­ment pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures when the same sit­u­a­tion hap­pened months ago in Ari­ma.

“Per­haps it is not by mis­take that the ex­ec­u­tive man­age­ment of T&TEC is re­fus­ing to meet and dis­cuss what is clear­ly their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty in law un­der the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Act. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, there seems to be some sort of col­lu­sion with the Min­istry of Health where this in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing the na­tion­al im­pact. They are sup­press­ing that in­for­ma­tion. The ques­tion of which com­mu­ni­ty is im­pact­ed more than the rest. How many cas­es through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go?”

T&TEC’s act­ing cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er Clare Coop­er-Vin­cent con­firmed that the union re­quest­ed a meet­ing with the com­mis­sion’s Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Kelvin Ram­sook. Vin­cent said Ram­sook del­e­gat­ed the Chief Op­er­a­tions Of­fi­cer Kervis Fran­cois and Sup­plies Man­ag­er Nasilee Smart to meet with the union, which they did on Mon­day. She said this was done af­ter a re-ed­u­ca­tion ses­sion with the em­ploy­ees.

Vin­cent said the union was ad­vised that the build­ing was sani­tised and on the week­end, the of­fices and vents were cleaned.

“On March 21 when we were made aware of the sit­u­a­tion, the em­ploy­ee rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the OW­TU were in­formed of the sit­u­a­tion and that same af­ter­noon, an aware­ness ses­sion was held with the em­ploy­ees,” Vin­cent said.

Coop­er said she could not con­firm whether there were three sus­pect­ed cas­es cur­rent­ly in the com­mis­sion.