Pub­lic ser­vants, who can­not find su­per­vi­sion for their chil­dren over the next week while schools are closed due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, can now ben­e­fit from pan­dem­ic leave.

The nov­el paid-leave, part of a draft na­tion­al pol­i­cy for work­places dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, was an­nounced by Labour Min­is­ter Jen­nifer Bap­tiste-Primus dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at her min­istry’s head­quar­ters in Port-of-Spain, this morn­ing.

Bap­tiste-Primus ex­plained that the leave would im­me­di­ate­ly ap­ply to pub­lic of­fi­cers, who are per­ma­nent, tem­po­rary, month­ly paid or dai­ly-rat­ed, on fixed or tem­po­rary con­tracts, who fall un­der the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion, and On-the-Job Trainees (OJTs).

It will ap­ply to pub­lic of­fi­cers as­signed to Gov­ern­ment min­istries and State-com­pa­nies.

Bap­tiste-Primus not­ed that the pol­i­cy, which is ex­pect­ed to be tak­en to Cab­i­net af­ter the Na­tion­al Tri­par­tite Ad­vi­so­ry Coun­cil con­sid­ers it ear­ly this week, will have to be im­ple­ment­ed by pri­vate com­pa­nies through con­sul­ta­tion with trade unions.

Dur­ing the press con­fer­ence, Bap­tiste-Primus pre­sent­ed a se­ries of guide­lines to be ap­plied by pri­vate-sec­tor em­ploy­ees and em­ploy­ers be­fore the full im­ple­men­ta­tion in their work­places.

She en­cour­aged em­ploy­ees with chil­dren to first utilise their usu­al sup­port sys­tems and em­ploy­ers to im­ple­ment poli­cies to al­low em­ploy­ees with chil­dren to work from home.

“One par­ent is en­cour­aged to stay at home with the chil­dren while the oth­er re­ports for du­ty,” Bap­tiste-Primus said.

While Bap­tiste-Primus said that the min­istry could not seek to com­pel pri­vate em­ploy­ers to im­ple­ment the ex­act pol­i­cy, she en­cour­aged them to in­tro­duce com­pas­sion­ate mea­sures aimed at en­sur­ing busi­ness con­ti­nu­ity while se­cur­ing the na­tion­al in­ter­est.

Bap­tiste-Primus re­peat­ed­ly stat­ed that par­ents, em­ployed both in the pri­vate and pub­lic sec­tor, should not bring their chil­dren to work dur­ing the pe­ri­od, which may still be ad­just­ed by the Gov­ern­ment based on how the sit­u­a­tion de­vel­ops.

How­ev­er, she called on cit­i­zens not to abuse the pro­posed fa­cil­i­ty.

“If you are not sick, do not stay away from work,” she said.

Speak­ing at the event, Chief Per­son­el Of­fi­cer (CPO) Daryl Din­di­al stat­ed that there was no sug­gest­ed cap on pan­dem­ic leave as the sit­u­a­tion may evolve.

“It has been left open be­cause we don’t know how long this would oc­cur,” Din­di­al said.

Din­di­al al­so ex­plained that the leave would on­ly ap­ply to par­ents with no su­per­vi­sion for their chil­dren and those em­ploy­ees who do not ben­e­fit from for sick leave as part of their em­ploy­ment, in the event, they fall ill, have to be quar­an­tined or even­tu­al­ly are con­firmed to have con­tract­ed the virus.

He said in sit­u­a­tions where em­ploy­ees with sick leave be­come ill or con­tract the virus, they would have to ex­haust their sick leave and ex­tend­ed sick leave be­fore qual­i­fy­ing for the pan­dem­ic leave.

He al­so not­ed that his of­fice had al­ready held pre­lim­i­nary dis­cus­sions with as­so­ci­a­tions for po­lice, prison, and fire of­fi­cers as spe­cial pro­vi­sions will have to be es­tab­lished for them.

Com­pa­nies, trade unions, and non-unionised staff who hit snags in their ne­go­ti­a­tions over the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the work­place poli­cies may con­sult with the Con­cil­i­a­tion Ad­vi­so­ry and Ad­vo­ca­cy Di­vi­sion of the min­istry.

https://www.cnc3.co.tt/coro­n­avirus-covid-19-up­dates/