|
|
|
Last Updated: Feb 6, 2017 - 2:32:04 PM |
Hundreds of angry Civil Servants in the Turks and Caicos Islands went on
strike early Tuesday morning, disconnecting the power to Government’s
administrative building in the island-capital of Grand Turk and marching
to the Governor’s office where they chained doors to a building in
which a meeting of UK-advisors was being held.
Wearing red shirts and brandishing strongly-worded placards, the civil
servants vented their rage at the Interim’s Government’s austerity
measures which include plans to sever 300 of them by the end of the
year.
The majority of Government services in Grand Turk, where most of the
country’s 2,500 civil servants are located, ground to a crippling halt.
In Providenciales, the most populous of the 30 Turks and Caicos Islands
and which is located 22 miles from Grand Turk, about 50 civil servants
also took industrial action, blocking the entry to the Immigration
Department where they held a rally.
Government schools were closed country-wide, as well as the Treasury
Departments, Labour, Immigration, the Maritime Division and a section of
the Judiciary, including the Labour Tribunal. There were reports that
the strike action had affected domestic and international flights, but
John Smith, CEO for the Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority said
the industrial action did not affect aviation. In a few instances there
were slight delays, he said, but this could be attributed to several
factors, including the weather.
Later in the afternoon, about 60 civil servants descended on the
Providenciales International Airport where they chanted “We want our
country back! We want our country back!”
Dr. Rufus Ewing, President of The Civil Service Association (CSA) which
organised the strike, took a microphone and encouraged the civil
servants to stand up for their rights.
“We’ve had enough of the British Government and their oppressive policies,” he stated. “Enough is enough.”
He then led a motorcade from the airport to the Hilly Ewing Building
(named after his father, a former political leader) which houses the
Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) and the Governor’s
office in Providenciales.
Ewing said Civil Servants are protesting because of the Interim
Government’s failure to extend the deadline for expression of interest
in the voluntary severance scheme for all civil servants and its failure
to provide a severance package based on civil servants' highest basis
salary during their period of employment.
The CSA is also against Government’s failure to reduce the period of ban
from the civil service from 4 years to 2 years and its failure to
consider staff redeployment before voluntary or compulsory redundancy,
and its unwillingness to complete a proper public sector reform
assessment before redundancy. The association is also up in arms
because of increased taxation, significantly reduced scholarship
opportunities, reduced social services support, increasing unemployment,
reduced support for Youth programmes, unfair laws and unfair policies
that are detrimental to the well-being of Turks and Caicos Islands’
children.
In a telephone interview from Grand Turk, one irate protestor told The
SUN: “We’ve had enough of the Brits. It’s time for them to leave the
Turks and Caicos Islands because all they are doing in messing up our
country and inflicting pain and suffering on our people, while they are
living it up and enjoying themselves like they are on an extended
vacation. They just don’t care about our people. Enough is enough!”
A range of UK Government funded advisers are now in place to offer
support and guidance to the Governor and to the public service after the
British suspended parts of the Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution on
August 14, 2009. Ministerial government and the House of Assembly were
suspended meaning that Cabinet no longer exists and the House of
Assembly was dissolved and Members’ seats are vacated. The
constitutional right to trial by jury was also suspended.
Reacting to the strike action, British-appointed Chief Executive, Martin
Stanley, who is currently acting as Governor, threatened to dock a
day’s pay from the striking workers, while adding that Government has
contingency plans in place for such events.
“During the strike as we concentrate on essential and emergency
services, we ask the people of TCI to be patient as they will not
receive the usual high standard of public service on strike days,”
Stanley said in a press release. “I would also ask those strikers who
work with the vulnerable members of our society to continue to balance
their desire to protest with ensuring that there is adequate service
provision to the needy. While there is no law against striking in the
TCI , clearly there are consequences for workers who do strike, such as
losing a day’s pay.”
In a separate statement issued on Monday night, Stanley said he was
surprised that the CSA called a strike concerning the terms of the
voluntary severance scheme.
“This scheme offers public servants the opportunity to volunteer to
leave the service in return for severance payments which can amount to
as much as two years salary. Furthermore, the original offer was
improved following representations from the CSA. The offer to weekly
paid staff was approximately doubled, for example,” he said.
“I appreciate that the CSA would have preferred the scheme to be even
more generous but – as we have already received nearly 500 expressions
of interest in this scheme – there is clearly a large number of civil
servants who see this as an opportunity. We are currently generating
individual offers for each of these people, and we will ask them to
indicate whether or not they wish to accept by Friday, 9 Dec 2011.”
He also stated that the Interim Administration is “deeply sympathetic to
the challenging circumstances faced by public servants” as it works to
improve the Government’s financial situation and rebalance the TCI civil
service to better meet local needs and priorities.
“I am therefore keen to continue to meet with the Civil Service
Association to discuss their concerns and would ask again for their
support in making the changes and improvements required for the greater
good of the TCI,” Stanley added.
SOURCE
© Copyright 2011 by thebahamasweekly.com
Top of Page
|
|
|
|