Government’s handling of the transfer of workers from its departments to the recently established Financial Services Commission (FSC) has been deemed as poor, according to Dennis Clarke, General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW).
Clarke told the DAILY NATION that workers, many of whom are from the office of the Supervisor of Insurance, have been seconded to the FSC?without knowing their status.
“Up to now no-one can explain to the NUPW what the structure is like, what terms and conditions will be offered to public servants who opt to work with the Commission,” he charged.
“In other words, it is a class case of inefficiency where you are asking public officers to come and work with an organisation without knowing what they are coming to.”
The Ministry of Finance is spearheading the transition but it should be the Ministry of the Civil Service, according to Clarke.
Clarke said the workers should know their status regarding pensions and gratuity and the terms and conditions under which they would be functioning.
“We are taking workers from the public service to a quasi-Government corporation where the ball game will be completely different. so all those things they would need to know. But they are going not knowing what the conditions are,” he said.
The unionist said it was critical that workers were not disadvantaged in the transition and that their conditions of work should be no less favourable.
“Out of fear and out of want to continue to work, some of them have signed the option letter and others have not, so there is not much more the union can do,” he conceded.
“What it tells us is that what we have to be careful of is any Government entity operating in the same way the Ministry of Finance is doing with those workers,” he said.
