Earlier today, Leader of the Opposition Bishop Joseph Atherley, released a statement responding to comments made by Prime Minister Mia Mottley about how the retrenchment of Government workers is being handled.
The following is the statement in its entirety.
Government can’t take credit when things go right and shift the blame when they get it wrong. Prime Minister Mottley is alleging sabotage of government’s restructuring and retrenchment programme. Government then should identify and deal with the saboteurs.
There are too many recurrent reports of people being unfairly treated in this layoff exercise. Too many stories of people being favoured, unjustly and illegally so over others.
We must stop playing with people’s lives. These layoffs, I have said, are a terrible thing. There are terrible at any time; there are even more so at this particular time.
The numbers announced by government are likely to be more than indicated. Add to that the ripple effect in the private sector. Then see the compounded effect when you consider that about 4 000 just came out of the education system this summer. The situation becomes more tragic when you also reflect on the thousands who graduated in the last ten years and can’t yet find a job or must settle for gross under-employment.
I call on the Prime Minister to ensure that there is a proper mechanism in place to manage this already painful process.
We are playing with the lives of people – parents and children, people with debt obligations, people who were struggling even before being laid off; and now having to face this nightmare.
There must neither be negligence nor callous indifference in the management of this process. (PR)
