THE NATIONAL UNION of Public Workers (NUPW) has again raised concern over the high number of Government buildings affected by environmental issues.
“For years we have been saying to Government they need to do maintenance. We had the Ministry of Public Works who would have gone through buildings. That was done away with, and you have seen the results,” lamented general secretary Roslyn Smith.
“It makes no sense shifting workers from this building to that building, paying high rental fees for buildings sometime over $70 000, when you can go back to your buildings, upgrade them and put the workers back in there.”
Smith was speaking to the media on Thursday following workers of the Supreme Court and Registration Department walking off the job yesterday morning, citing environmental issues.
While noting the union was working with the Immigration Department to get staff out of the condemned building on Wharf Road, The City, she said they were scheduled to do a walkthrough of the new building at Princess Alice Highway tomorrow which was 99 per cent complete.
“We also had the issue with the Treasury [Building]. We had to get them into the Ministry of Housing’s building, and now we have to look for these workers [at the Supreme Court]. Obviously because it is a court setting, they may have to look at the existing courts and see how best they can deploy or rearrange cases or whatever the case may be,” she said
She added she had instructed the workers to inform their supervisors that they would not be occupying the building for the remainder of the day.
Asked if workers would be penalised for not attending work, she said staff could not be victimised under the Health and Safety Act, which protected the workers from this type of environment.
“Government is supposed to be providing a safe environment for workers. Under the Health and Safety Act, workers have a right to determine whether or not they will work in this building. If a building is making you sick, mentally you know it is making you sick so you have to protect yourself.
“We have spoken to the Registrar [of the Supreme Court] already and we will have to set up a meeting now to see how soon we will be able to relocate these workers, because they cannot work from this building. The level of workers coming down ill with respiratory and other problems is too high,” she said, adding it was alleged that one of the judges was ill from working in the building. (RA)