BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-THE Department of Labour came under fire once again this week for inefficient practices, but Prime Minister Dr. Hon. Denzil Douglas defended the institution by saying his government would work to keep it the “critical agency” for workers rights.
Early in yesterday’s (Jan. 20) “Ask the Prime Minister” radio programme, a civil servant phoned in and levied a complaint against the Department of Labour, saying that she found it very difficult to have disputes within government offices mediated by the government-run institution.
“It is very unfortunate that we may not have within the government system an appropriate and permanent way of dealing with civil servant [labour] issues,” Douglas said. “If what the caller is saying is true that is not what we want.”
Douglas assured that caller that he would take the opportunity to visit with human resource departments within the civil service and the Department of Labour to ensure that the proper channels are in place to handle complaints in the public sector.
Immediately after the call, a member of the general public emailed the programme and complained that he had “worked at a company for a month and then resigned”, and seven months after the resignation had yet to receive pay in spite of pursuing action via the Department of Labour.
The irked worker said that he viewed the incident as indicative of “how ineffective the Labour Department is”.
The Prime Minister offered his apologies for the incident and said that he believed persons must be patient with the department.
“I am not certain why a matter that had been heard…would take seven months for the appropriate action to have been taken, but again I am appealing to all who utilise the Labour Department to recognise that there might be some resource shortage.”
A similar call was placed earlier this month to the same programme, in which the caller said the institution had failed in “giving justice” to many persons who had filed complaints.
With the numerous complaints lodged against the Department of Labour, Douglas said he viewed it as important to analyse its overall operations and bolster the institution in the future.
“The Minister of Labour [Hon. Sam Condor] is very anxious and very much committed to ensuring that there is continued improvement in the services that are provided by the Department of Labour.
“I don’t want anyone to misunderstand that the Labour Department is not critically important. We continue to recognise that your representation is important, and we will continue to ensure that there is efficiency at all times in the Labour Department to deal with these issues,” he said.
