“Keep your mind on your money and your money on your mind.” This was the advice given to unionised employees of the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) by Public Service Association president, Watson Duke, yesterday.
He held an early meeting with close to a 100 nurses and administrative staff in the lobby of the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) yesterday. The meeting was to address the failure of government to pay workers their back-pay following a 14 per cent salary increase.
On March 11, the PSA signed off on a new collective agreement with Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) Stephanie Lewis for the 14 per cent salary increase which covers the period 2011 to 2014. He said: “Act like your money is on your mind and your mind is on your money all the time,” Duke told workers.
“You know when something is on your mind, you does loss away? You move slow and forget to do things and sometimes you might not even come out to work.
“If they ask you why you are acting like that, tell them your money is on your mind. They cannot say we are on a go-slow or that we are protesting, we just have our money on our minds.”
Duke said the constitutional rights of workers have been violated by Government’s failure to pay them arrears. “This is a matter of arrears from a three-year period and based on the law, this money is known as your property.
“To be deprived of such is a violation of your constitutional rights, he said. He accused Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley of playing ‘king’ and handing out decrees, rather than meeting with unions to discuss the future of public service employees.
“They took your votes, but now they don’t want to listen to you, the king just sits in Parliament and hands out decrees.”
Duke said if workers sat quietly and accepted the promise of the Government to pay them backpay ‘soon’, the Government’s next move would be wage freezing.
“They did it in National Gas Company (NGC) and right now what they are doing is testing out this delay on you. If you don’t show any allergic reaction to it, the next step is salary freeze,” he said.
Duke vowed to advise workers what further action should be taken after he met with staff at the other Regional Health Authorities in the coming days.
“Tomorrow (today) I am meeting with the East (Eastern Regional Health Authority) and on Friday I will meet with Port-of-Spain (North West RHA) so by Monday, we will have decided on a way forward.”
On December 2, Duke met with doctors, nurses and administrative staff of the Tobago Regional Health Authority for “Maniac Monday” where staff protested the delays in their back-pay.