By Shermain Bique-Charles
Over a dozen employees at the Clarevue Psychiatric Hospital remained off the job on Monday, demanding that all monies owed to them must first be settled.
Last week, about 70 workers took protest action for four consecutive days as they demanded outstanding payment for overtime and highlighted other issues, to include better working conditions.
They were paid a fraction of the monies owed to them on Friday, however some of the employees decided to stay off the job yesterday and are insisting that all their owed monies must be paid.
Shop Steward of Clarevue, Ava Bowen, told Observer yesterday that while some of the staff are happy to receive their funds, others got nothing at all.
“Yes, a few can smile because they smile for something but some ain’t get nothing as yet. When we calculated, they [the government] only dished out about $100,000. This means that they haven’t paid all what is owed which is over $300,000,” she said.
Bowen said the insufficient payout is not the only issue still of concern.
“It’s not only the money we want. We want comfort and safety while on the job. We have been using our own phones, for instance, and not everybody can put a plan on their phones. We have been using our phones to do government business,” she explained.
The workers vow to continue their protest until the outstanding balance has been paid.
Clarevue staff are the latest in a series of government agencies and departments to take industrial action over outstanding overtime pay in recent months.