Minister of Rural Development and Local Government, Khadijah Ameen, has reassured workers that the issue of late salaries to Regional Corporations has been dealt with.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Minister Ameen sought to set the record straight, pointing out that the Port of Spain City Corporation failed to submit a document containing the calculations for its workers’ salaries.
“As you know, those workers in the PSA would have gotten an increase and that is what they did not submit to us. We met with them in March, they were supposed to submit it. Our PS met with them again in April. They did not submit it. And when the releases were made, we could not pay them because they had not submitted those documents. Our PS worked all over the weekend to ensure that those documents were received. When they did send them on the Sunday, there were some errors, and we spent Monday correcting them so those workers were paid.”
Minister Ameen condemned the Port of Spain Mayor’s decision to publicise the issue, rather than reaching out directly to her. She said she saw firsthand how this issue had jeopardised some workers.
“There was one woman who called me in tears, and I had to call the credit union to speak to the general manager to let them know that this is not a permanent situation. This is not a situation where her job security or her income is threatened. This is a one-off situation. But because the mayor sought to publicise it so foolishly, it had a negative impact on workers.”