SASCHA WIL­SON

Dai­ly paid work­ers of the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion (SFCC) have downed tools as they protest the lack of pro­tec­tive equip­ment and gear against COVID-19.

Bear­ing plac­ards and singing union songs, the work­ers called on man­age­ment to ur­gent­ly ad­dress their health and safe­ty con­cerns at the South-West­ern Ward, at the cor­ner of Sut­ton and Ja­madar Street, San Fer­nan­do.

Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union shop-stew­ard, Ian Charles, com­plained that prop­er equip­ment and gears are in place for em­ploy­ees at de­part­ments in the main ad­min­is­tra­tion build­ing, yet dai­ly paid work­ers are be­ing ne­glect­ed.

Charles told Guardian Me­dia dur­ing the first lock­down, a face basin was in­stalled along with a liq­uid soap dis­penser, but the liq­uid soap has not been re­plen­ished and the wa­ter in the tap runs “like sweet oil”.  He al­so com­plained that the fil­ter to the wa­ter tank has not been re­placed or ser­viced in five years. He said work­ers usu­al­ly get face masks once a year, which is un­ac­cept­able. 

San Fernando City Corporation daily paid workers protest the lack of protective equipment and gear, on Tuesday 4 January 2022. (Image: RISHI RAGOONATH)

Com­plain­ing that dai­ly paid work­ers are in the “bel­ly of the beast”, Charles said they are fed up and are de­mand­ing that man­age­ment safe­guard their health and well-be­ing.

“Work­ers of this ward and dai­ly paid work­ers of the San Fer­nan­do City cor­po­ra­tion have been deemed es­sen­tial.  Work­ers are com­ing out here and they have fam­i­lies and com­ing out here on a dai­ly ba­sis, re­li­gious­ly, and per­form­ing their du­ties, and sim­ple ba­sic ameni­ties man­age­ment fails to pro­vide,” Charles stat­ed.

How­ev­er, he com­plained that at the main of­fice tem­per­a­ture de­vices, sani­tis­ers and glass screens are all in place to pro­tect work­ers.

“We are fed up. We went through­out the chan­nels. I per­son­al­ly went on be­half of the ward and asked man­age­ment of all the dif­fer­ent de­part­ments—down to the CEO—and [on­ly] a set of promis­es. Mr Re­grel­lo came here and was won­der­ing how we’re per­form­ing our du­ties un­der these con­di­tions,” Charles said.

The work­ers’ rep­re­sen­ta­tive al­so com­plained that work­ers are still be­ing paid 2013 salaries. 

The work­ers who per­form san­i­ta­tion, street main­te­nance and con­struc­tion work are now threat­en­ing not to re­turn to work un­til their is­sues are ad­dressed.