Unsanitary toilets, dirty carpets and irritating fumes were a few of the health and safety issues raised by employees who refused to work at the Telecommunications Services of T&T’s (TSTT) building, St James Street, San Fernando, yesterday. About 30 people, comprising TSTT workers and representatives from the Communications Workers' Union, gathered peacefully outside the Mini Max Building around 9.30 am yesterday, in what southern branch chairman Dylan Charles described as a call for action.
He said: “It’s not a protest. Workers are making a clarion call to the company and the public. “We doing this today because the workers are demanding immediate resolutions because they want to go back to work.” Charles explained there was no janitorial staff, a fume coming from the carpet on the first floor was causing workers’ eyes and throats to burn and there were fluctuating temperatures throughout the building.
He said workers wanted to dispel the perception that their refusal to work was disruptive and said it was the company that had refused to deal with the issues. “It’s not the workers. We are just pleading with the company to bring the reports forward so they (employees) can go back to work,” he said. He said the situation was taking a toll on workers and customers and the safety committee needed to bring its report forward for the workers’ review.
Charles said the company was deliberately failing to address their concerns. “We want the company to sit down and have meaningful discussion with the union and workers so that we could come to a resolution because the workers want to go back to work,” he added. He said the nine cashiers in particular had refused to work due to poor conditions in the cashiers’ cages. That issue has been ongoing for more than a year, said cashier Curt Tidd.
The building underwent refurbishment in July 2012 but the cashiers’ cages were not remodelled to reflect the suggested changes. “There is only one entrance to the cashiers’ area. If God forbid it we have a fire, we don’t have any other means of escape. We will all be trapped inside there,” Tidd said. The building has also been without a janitorial staff since the end of July, Tidd told the T&T Guardian. “Only last week, I think, they got two cleaners to come Wednesday afternoon and then again on Thursday afternoon,” Tidd said.
He explained, however, that with the volume of staff, there needed to be cleaners constantly on site to keep the bathrooms sanitary. “For the entire week before that, there weren’t any cleaners so the place was deplorable,” he said. He said management’s apathy to their situation was disturbing. “We have persevered for a long time. We’ve always been told ‘hold on.’ They not taking us on,” he said.
Charles said it was the workers who have been meeting management on the middle ground for the past year, putting up with the poor conditions. “Now that workers have taken action, they saying workers are unfair and uncaring,” he said, According to Charles, the cashiers’ positions were being filled by managers and supervisors who told workers if they (managers) could stand the cages, so could they (employees).
The Occupational Safety and Health Authority of T&T has not been involved as yet, as it depended on the report from the investigating committee, Charles said. If workers were not satisfied, then the union would approach the body, he said. Tidd said there was only so much workers could take. “We don’t want to be taking action for anything but after a while you have to take a stand somewhere. We don’t want to be out here, we want to be working,” he said.
TSTT’s communications department did not respond to questions on the workers’ complaints up to last evening.