There is a strong possibility that police officers could take matters into their own hands if, at the end of this month, they are not paid their backpay.
President of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association Inspector Anand Ramesar said officers were becoming increasingly upset as the monies owed for the period 2010 to 2015 were yet to be paid.
He said the tallying on the backpay would have already been done by the organisation’s finance branch.
“We want to know how far you have reached in computing the backpay and we want to know why has the payment not commenced because we are aware that a lot of police officers have had their computation completed in relation to their backpay”.
“We are in March and all we have heard was a lot of promises that it was going to commence. We heard it was going to commence last September, December, January and since January we have heard nothing,” Ramesar said.
He said once the computation was completed the figures would then have to be audited and once this was done the backpay should be paid.
Ramesar added that there was a “clear responsibility” for the finance minister to communicate with the association, whether through the line minister or acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams.
“The period we have gone without any proper communication is unreasonable in addition to which we have received several promises that it would commence and it has not...it is almost as if officers were misled.
“The membership, to say the least, is becoming a bit concerned about the issue and is becoming a bit restless. We want to know if the process has been completed or at least for how many of our police officers has the process been completed,” Ramesar said.
He said at a general council meeting held last Friday the membership reiterated that the relevant authorities must respond to their concerns and provide “clear answers”.
“Let us know exactly what is happening... whether or not there is any intention to pay the money because this is injurious to the well-being of police officers,” Ramesar added.
He said depending on what was now communicated, officers would respond, adding that the association was also exploring its legal options.
The general council, Ramesar said, was expected to meet early next month following which the next step would be determined.
“Any action that is adverse to the functionality will not be pursued by the association.
“But we do have an awareness from an informal context that police officers not reporting for duty—resting and reflecting and all these other things that we see happen from time to time—have happened in the past and it can happen again,” Ramesar added.