NPUPS workers say delayed pay is causing financial hardship

DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­[email protected]

Em­ploy­ees of the Na­tion­al Pro­gramme for the Up­keep of Pub­lic Spaces (NPUPS), who have been wait­ing for their wages, have been told the ad­min­is­tra­tive is­sue re­spon­si­ble for de­layed pay­ments could be re­solved by the end of this week. But work­ers say the de­lay has been caus­ing them hard­ship.

The as­sur­ance came from Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen as she at­tend­ed a do­na­tion of dis­as­ter re­lief sup­plies by The Church of Je­sus Christ of Lat­ter-day Saints on Wednes­day. Ameen said an ad­min­is­tra­tive er­ror, main­ly af­fect­ing re­place­ment work­ers, led to the pay­ment de­lays. She said she was dis­ap­point­ed that the af­fect­ed em­ploy­ees had not been paid on time and that of­fi­cials were work­ing to re­solve the mat­ter.

“These work­ers, their pro­duc­tiv­i­ty is ex­cep­tion­al. They are work­ing re­al­ly well. And I am very up­set of this sit­u­a­tion where they are be­ing paid late. So we are work­ing to en­sure that this sit­u­a­tion is sort­ed out. I hope by the end of the week that ad­min­is­tra­tive snag will be dealt with.”

She said NPUPS em­ploy­ees have cleaned streets, drains, preschools, com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres, pa­n­yards and oth­er pub­lic spaces. She al­so said the pro­gramme had high­light­ed pro­duc­tiv­i­ty is­sues among some em­ploy­ees at re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions.

“It is al­so an op­por­tu­ni­ty for the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions’ es­tab­lished work­ers to re-ex­am­ine how they work. Be­cause pro­duc­tiv­i­ty in cor­po­ra­tions is what caused us to look to­wards do­ing this pro­gramme where we put ad­di­tion­al work­ers. So, they al­ways ask for more work­ers, but what are your work­ers do­ing? And that is some­thing that I’ve dis­cussed with the union. And there are some very dili­gent cor­po­ra­tion work­ers but there are some oth­ers who give them a bad rep­u­ta­tion.”

How­ev­er, some NPUPS em­ploy­ees re­main frus­trat­ed over the con­tin­ued de­lays.

Mary Ra­moutal, who said she has not been paid since May 11, said work­ers were strug­gling to meet ba­sic ex­pens­es while wait­ing for their salaries.

She said many have rent to pay, school books to pur­chase and chil­dren at home dur­ing the school va­ca­tion, in­creas­ing house­hold ex­pens­es. She added that some work­ers have been forced to bor­row mon­ey and pay in­ter­est to make ends meet.

Ra­moutal said she had no is­sue with the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion but be­lieved the pro­longed de­lays were un­fair. She al­so dis­put­ed the min­is­ter’s as­ser­tion that the de­lays main­ly af­fect­ed re­place­ment work­ers, say­ing em­ploy­ees across the pro­gramme were still wait­ing to be paid.

She al­so com­plained about what she de­scribed as in­ad­e­quate equip­ment, say­ing work­ers are re­quired to bring many of their own tools.

“We have to walk to work with a broom, a rake, a whack­er, every­thing. They pay­ing us for that? All we get is garbage bags, that’s all. We have to buy we food, we wa­ter, we juice. Is hot sun we work­ing in. We on the road. If a maxi or a bus run off the road, that is it for we.”

Ra­moutal al­so ques­tioned why work­ers were not re­ceiv­ing payslips.

“We fed up of this be­ing processed and let it pro­ceed. Yuh un­der­stand? Nah, we fed up.

“And those who get paid, they’re not see­ing a payslip. Where’s the payslip to show what you get paid for (or) where the NIS com­ing out? Where every­thing?

“This is not CEPEP. CEPEP you still used to see, you used to get your payslip. You ent get­ting noth­ing here!”

Ra­moutal said work­ers be­lieved they had done noth­ing wrong and would be en­ti­tled to com­pen­sa­tion if their em­ploy­ment was ter­mi­nat­ed.

“We, the work­ers in NPUPS Port-of-Spain West, we are very dis­ap­point­ed,” she said. “And if we eh get paid by Fri­day, we com­ing back again. Be­cause them min­is­ters, every­body, they get­ting paid. You know how much is their salaries? That is a to­tal dis­re­spect. We are not ac­cept­ing that.”

Ear­li­er this week, Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed that NPUPS em­ploy­ees said they were strug­gling to meet fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions due to pay­ment de­lay and com­plained about a lack of in­for­ma­tion from of­fi­cials.

NPUPS re­placed the Com­mu­ni­ty-based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP), which was dis­con­tin­ued amid al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion. The pro­gramme now em­ploys about 1,600 peo­ple.