Retrenched Construtora OAS workers said they have been advised by the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) to call off protests in the southland and instead take their fight to the office of Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus.
Spokesman Sunil Sookram confirmed the workers, who have been blocking parts of Mosquito Creek in protest of their retrenchment and delay in payment of benefits, said they were advised by the union to desist from blocking the roads.
He said it was decided after a meeting with the union on Monday that on June 1 workers and their families would picket the office of Baptiste-Primus in Port-of-Spain with the hope that she would intervene on their behalf.
“We will gather at OWTU headquarters on Circular Road at 7.30 am and from there we will go to Port-of-Spain. We are going to hold off on protests until then,” Sookram said.
The workers, who were laid off last December, are still owed two outstanding bi-monthly wages and severance benefits. Last Friday, they staged protest action outside the Works and Transport Ministry’s office on London Street, Port-of-Spain, saying more than 900 workers have not been paid since October.
The contract between OAS and Nidco is expected to end on May 26. Nidco officials said OAS had already indicated that it could not continue the highway project.
Nidco’s communications manager, Ingrid Ishmael, in an earlier interview said the non-payment of salaries and severance was a matter between OAS and its former workers. She said workers who expected performance bonds to be released were being misinformed.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said on May 2 the State was seeking to “extricate” itself from the contract with OAS. He said the project now had to be completed by new contractors.