Almost 1,000 citizens may soon be out of a job as the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union says highway contractor Construtora OAS has signalled its intention to retrench workers.
Work on the $7.5 billion Solomon Hochoy Highway Extension Project was suspended on December 18 for the Christmas season and was expected to resume on January 5.
However, OWTU branch secretary for the Construtora OAS workers, Muhammad Hosein, said nothing has been going on with the project.
He said when workers returned to the contractor’s Golconda head office last month, they were told that work was not ready and that they should return on January 11.
Since then, they have been receiving a basic salary with instructions to return the following Monday.
Hundreds of workers gathered at the contractor’s gates yesterday, eagerly awaiting news of their future at the company. Hosein said the company called a meeting with the workers’ committee yesterday but there would be no meeting without OWTU president Ancel Roget.
In a previous meeting with Construtora OAS, he said, the company said it had not received funds from the project manager, the National Infrastructure Development Company (Nidco), and was unable to pay workers.
“We have some concerns where it comes to workers’ job security. We were sent home on December 18 for the Christmas holidays to resume on January 5. Since then to now, we have not resumed work and every Monday we come out, we are being told to go back home and the company will pay the workforce a basic eight-hour, five days per week pay,” Hosein said.
He said they would usually earn overtime for extra hours worked daily and additional for weekend work. He said most workers supported a household of five or six people, meaning that almost 6,000 people would be affected by any laying off. Already, 980 workers were lay off by ArcelorMittal since 2015, increasing fears of more retrenchment as T&T battles a recession.
Hosein said the union was informed that Construtora OAS is in the process of handing over its work to ten sub-contractors. However, calls to the company’s country superintendent Rodrigo Ventura went to voicemail.
When the T& Guardian contacted Nidco yesterday, an attendant said acting president Steve Garibsingh was in a meeting. A few sites were visited yesterday but there were no signs of work, though there were vehicles at a site at Suchit Trace, Penal.