Employees of the Inland Revenue Department at Trinidad House, St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain, were forced to return home yesterday after a sewerage pipe burst on the ground floor. Employees arrived at work to discover a sewerage pipe had backed up and burst, spilling human waste in the washroom and the office pantry. A member of the maintenance staff said the plumbing in the building had not been changed nor properly maintained since the building was constructed in the 1960s. Maintenance staff were seen wearing face masks as they hauled large rusted iron pipes out the building.
The T&T Guardian was given access to the washroom where the pipe burst. Pipes had been taken out of the walls and the offices near the washroom were empty after employees could no longer bear the smell of human excrement. Employees, who did not want to be named, said they had complained about the poor state of the building, especially the lack of ventilation throughout the building. Finance Ministry's Communications Specialist Dominic Hinds said the management at Trinidad House made the decision to have employees leave for the day. He said management understood that "persons cannot function under such conditions."
Hinds said Trinidad House should be opened today once the situation was rectified. Public Services Association (PSA) president Watson Duke, who represents the employees, was called by employees to assess the situation. Duke said because of the stench and mess employees could not work and enacted Section 15 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Osha), which says employees had the right to leave their place work if they believed their health was at risk. He said workers on the ground, first and second floor were told to leave by both the union and management. Duke said employees working at Trinidad House had previously complained about the conditions of the building, which he said were "very poor."
In an interview with the Guardian on Sunday Duke said the would be zero tolerance on "sick" Government buildings. Duke said there would be a shutdown of these "sick" buildings, one of which was Trinidad House. He said: "We are now saying zero tolerance on all buildings that are sick, all buildings that are posing health and safety risks to the employees. "The PSA will be going out and we will be causing employees to enact Section 15 ( of the OSH Act) that says employees have the right to refuse to work where they believe that the environment may be injurious to health or life."