The Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Union (BIG­WU) has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of com­mit­ting a “se­ri­ous and reck­less blun­der” by in­clud­ing al­ready-filled po­si­tions in its Na­tion­al Re­cruit­ment Dri­ve, say­ing the move hu­mil­i­ates ex­ist­ing em­ploy­ees and breach­es their trust.

In a state­ment is­sued to­day, the union said the ad­ver­tise­ments in­clude po­si­tions cur­rent­ly oc­cu­pied by ex­ist­ing job hold­ers, call­ing it a breach of con­tract that could ex­pose the state to le­gal con­se­quences.

“By pub­licly ad­ver­tis­ing po­si­tions that are al­ready filled, the Gov­ern­ment has cre­at­ed a sit­u­a­tion that strikes at the very heart of the em­ploy­ment re­la­tion­ship,” BIG­WU said.

“The State is ef­fec­tive­ly telling that work­er, ‘Your job may not be yours any­more.’ That is a clear breach of con­tract and, in law, can amount to con­struc­tive dis­missal.”

The union de­scribed the sit­u­a­tion as deeply dis­tress­ing and hu­mil­i­at­ing for af­fect­ed em­ploy­ees, say­ing it sub­jects them to “un­nec­es­sary anx­i­ety, emo­tion­al trau­ma, and the fear of im­mi­nent un­em­ploy­ment.”

BIG­WU said it will de­fend work­ers’ rights to seek dam­ages for breach of con­tract, emo­tion­al dis­tress, and loss of rep­u­ta­tion, if nec­es­sary.

It al­so called on the gov­ern­ment to im­me­di­ate­ly with­draw the ad­ver­tise­ments, is­sue a pub­lic apol­o­gy and ex­pla­na­tion to af­fect­ed work­ers, and take steps to pre­vent any re­cur­rence.

“The Gov­ern­ment, as the largest sin­gle em­ploy­er in the coun­try, bears an even high­er du­ty of care in its treat­ment of work­ers,” said BIG­WU Pres­i­dent Don De­venish.

“Work­ers are not dis­pos­able. They are not place­hold­ers. Their rights, dig­ni­ty, and peace of mind must nev­er be col­lat­er­al dam­age in the name of re­cruit­ment.”

—Ke­jan Haynes