President of the Grenada Trade Union Council (TUC) Senator Andre Lewis has warned the Congress government of Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell against moving towards establishing a contributory scheme for public officers to get a pension on their retirement from the service and not sticking to the existing arrangement.
Speaking at Labour Day celebrations in Grenada on Wednesday, Lewis who is also the President-General of the Technical & Allied Workers Union (TAWU) said he does not see anything wrong in workers benefitting from a non-contributory pension scheme on their retirement.
“What is wrong with workers benefiting from non-contributory pension when it is through their labour power that the businesses are operating?
According to Sen. Lewis, the owners and operators of businesses like managers are getting huge benefits but there is an attempt to say that because workers “are not directly contributing to pension that we should lose it or change it.”
He pointed out that in some statutory bodies on the island, attempts are being made to change the non-contributory benefits of workers.
“What these companies and statutory bodies have not done is that they have not been financially prudent to put aside or make a provision for the pension but squandered a lot of money.”
“These statutory bodies have squandered our monies in all sorts of investments, all kinds of benefits to their board members and now they are running into difficulties they are now trying to blame us.”
Sen. Lewis also addressed the issue of the estranged workers of an outfit in St Andrew’s known as FAITH who were employed on contract under the former New National Party (NNP) regime in which the sister of former Education Minister Emmalin Pierre was a major player.
He said the current Congress government of Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has refused to pay the workers even though they worked for the State up to two months after the change of regime resulting from the June 2022 general election.
He said the position of the TUC is that the government must go after FAITH and not the workers.
“Go through the legal process and if somebody has to pay let the company pay but these ordinary working class people, many from St Andrew’s … have not been paid.”
“And if we are saying that we are looking after workers and we are spending millions of dollars for TAMCC workers and millions of dollars for Pensioners, what is it for a few hundred thousand dollars if so much for these ordinary workers?”
“We have a duty and obligation to ensure that we call upon the State to pay these workers – they must not be politically victimised. They did not elect to employ themselves – they are employed by the company and the company provided a service to the State.
Attorney-at-law Nigel Stewart is known to have instituted legal proceedings against the NDC regime on behalf of the FAITH employees.
Sen. Lewis also accused the Congress administration of seeking to “unilaterally amend the Labour Code” without the involvement of the trade unions.
He said the government is trying to bring about what he called “forced arbitration” in industrial disputes.
According to Sen. Lewis, he gleaned from the address delivered a few minutes before his own presentation to workers, from the Minister of Labour Claudette Joseph about what might be accepted and what was being recommended to government but at the level of the Labour Advisory Board involving TUC, there has not been finality of anything.
He told workers that he is aware of some of these recommendations but it appears that the government wants the union to “be quiet” and not “go out there and speak” on the matter.
The TUC boss also warned the Labour Minister about what appears to be a clandestine attempt to amend the Dispute regulation by removing the Ministry of Labour from the process.
He charged that the private sector in which the current Prime Minister served many of them in his capacity as a corporate lawyer have always been championing the removal of the Ministry of Labour from the Dispute resolution on the grounds that some Labour Ministers have been too friendly with the Working Class.
He noted that these same big businesses are the ones who often finance the political campaigns of parties in general elections but are afraid that “a progressive minister” might rule in favour of workers in a dispute.
Speculation is rife that fingers have been pointed in the past to former Labour Minister Peter David who is known to march every year in the Labour Day parade with TAWU.
Both Sen. Lewis and ex-Minister David were strong supporters of the 1979-83 Grenada Revolution of late Marxist leader Maurice Bishop who was executed in a bloody internal palace coup by a radical faction known as OREL that was linked to ex-Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard.