Le sucre à travers le monde →
Copyright © 2006 - 2009 Sucre Ethique
Site réalisé avec SPIP par
A. LE FLOCH
Former workers of the Sugar Manufacturing Company Limited (SMCL) want Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Labour and Small and Micro Enterprises Minister Errol McLeod to help them get themoney owed to them, after the company was closed down by the People’s National Movement (PNM) administration in April.
Spokesman for the workers Garfield Jaskaran said that 130 workers were "treated like slaves" while operating the sugar refinery at Usine/Ste Madeleine.
"We want justice. We also want to ensure what happened to us will never happen again to workers of the nation," he said.
Their employer, contractor Christopher Paul, said he met all his obligations to the workers and went into debt to pay them because the SMCL still owed him for three months work.
The ex-workers were employed with Caroni (1975) Ltd, but when the company closed in 2003, they found jobs with a contract firm which continued refinery operations under the SMCL.
Jaskaran said that a sum of $805,000 per month was paid by government to cover labour costs.
He called for an investigation into the operations of SMCL.
Former worker Roderick Rampersad said many were still owed money.
He said when SMCL started in 2004, workers were promised contracts with benefits such as sick leave, holiday with pay, gratuity and other fringe benefits as well as salary increases at the start of each new year.
He said the promises were never kept.
When shift operations were shut down due to a shortage of feedstock, workers said they were not paid during the downtime.
Jaskaran said that workers were advised to join a union but those who showed an interest in organising the workers were fired.
The All Trinidad General Workers Trade Union (ATGWTU), he said, was seeking recognition from the Recognition Board to represent them when the company was shut down.
He said workers met then prime minister Patrick Manning who informed them the contractor was paid by government to operate the refinery up to April and workers should have received salaries.
Minister in the Ministry of Works Rudranath Indarsingh, in his capacity as then ATGWTU president, had written the contractor in a failed bid to have a meeting.