OFFICIALS?of the Ministry of Social Care were scrambling yesterday to find alternative accommodation for several employees of the Welfare Department to avert an imminent strike.
The employees, including welfare officers and administration staff, refused to report for work at the Old National Insurance Building on Fairchild Street, which has been fraught with environmental problems for years.
Reports indicate that staff have been falling ill since they were relocated to the fifth floor of the building about a year ago. But things came to a head on Monday when the fire alarm went off and everyone except the Welfare Department evacuated the building because they did not hear the ring.
Employees met on a bus in Country Road, St Michael, yesterday morning with Acting Permanent Secretary Tennyson Springer and other officials to discuss the situation. It is understood that Springer also inspected the former Welfare Office, on Country Road, which is under renovation.
