INDARSINGH: CPO OFFER OF 4% ABOMINABLE; PNM SERVES 1% WHILE INSULTING WORKERS WITH 4%; PNM HACKS HIRED WHILE WORKERS ARE FIRED.
August 4th, 2022.
The recent announcement by the Chief Personnel Officer Dr. Daryl Dindial that the final offer of increase from the Government for members of the protective services is four percent (4%), is the epitome of the PNM selfishness, nonchalance, spite and poor economic governance that we have seen over the past seven (7) years.
It is abominable that after 7 long years in office, and with the protective services and other public sector workers having not received any increases in their salaries since 2014, that this Government would offer a measly, paltry, pathetic, uncaring four percent (4%).
This Government and “Rowleynomics” have created an economic hole that has seen the exponential increase in the cost of living through the provocation of higher fuel prices at the pumps, higher food prices, higher utility rates, approaching property taxes, lower job security, less foreign direct investment and the collapse of an affordable and inclusive education.
This is a Government that serves every need of the one percent (1%), but offers our protective services only four percent (4%).
Even worse are reports that Government has hired one Ms. Alisha Romano, a former PNM candidate, to be a consultant at WASA at an alleged salary of thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000.00) per month, just days after hiring newcomer Khamal Georges at TSTT as a senior manager at a supposed rate of eighty-five thousand dollars ($85,000.00) per month. These persons were hired at these supposedly exorbitant amounts in the midst of mass firing of other, longstanding workers from those said companies.
We must now be worried as to what low level offers will be made to public officers across the country and their recognised majority unions.
Clearly, the wealth of this country are not for workers, but for PNM hacks finding favour with the Prime Minister.
Only PNM hacks are being hired while dedicated, humble workers are being fired.
The Opposition UNC settled one hundred and thirty-four (134) wage negotiations in five (5) short years, and were able to create the funding and economic activity necessary to service the needs of workers through the collective bargaining process.
The UNC calls on the protective services and other public officers to comprehend how this Government continues to allow the economic oligarchs in this country to prosper, while suffering the lower and middle working class.
We stand with the unions, and call on Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley and Finance Minister Colm Imbert, who have both been hiding behind the CPO, to “wheel and come again”, and that “4 must become more”.
Respectfully Submitted,
RUDRANATH INDARSINGH
Member of Parliament for Couva South and Shadow Representative for Labour
and Tobago Affairs.
681-2525, rudranath43@gmail.com