A census taker’s grief

WESTERN BUREAU:

Aneisha Whyte’s frustration is mounting.

She was contracted by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) to work during the 2022 population and housing census as a supervisor in St Ann. However, Whyte says that she is yet to be fully remunerated for work done.

The census commenced in September 2022 and was expected to run for six months, but it ended in December 2023.

Whyte explained that she was initially contracted to supervise a zone, which included six enumeration districts in St Ann.

She further said that she then asked to fill in and accept the additional responsibilities of a second zone after another census supervisor resigned.

While acknowledging the additional work that came with this responsibility, Whyte said she was excited for the opportunity as the approved compensation for a census supervisor was $160,000 per supervisory zone. In addition to that, supervisors were also promised a travel allowance of $140,000 for each zone, so she was expecting to cash out $600,000 before deductions.

So far, Whyte said she has only received $162,617 since the completion of the census. She told The Gleaner that she has made several attempts at contacting STATIN for information on remuneration. She also voiced her concerns in a previous article that was published in March, by this newspaper.

A week after that publication, Whyte said she has received a payment of $85,000, which amounted to $58,282 after taxes were deducted. She, however, argued that this was unacceptable as she is still reportedly owed over a significant amount.

“I did receive some payment in March, but I called to rectify it because that wasn’t what I was expecting and they said by the end of the month, I would get the next payments. Each time I called, I hear a different weekend or another week,” Whyte bemoaned.

When The Gleaner contacted Georgia Garvey-Green, STATIN’s corporate communication manager, she requested that an email be sent. This request was honoured on Tuesday afternoon.

Garvey-Green told The Gleaner that she sent the emailed questions to senior managers for a response, but did not get any answers.

The Gleaner also tried reaching out to Garvey-Green again, however, no response was offered up to press time.

Whyte is also calling for the immediate intervention of Carol Coy, director general at STATIN, in the handlings of the workers’ remuneration.

“Ms Coy, a full time fi we get wi pay. It is unfair because a we go out there in the sun. You and I know how the sun hot, so when we go out there, we have to drink water or drinks. And from 2022 until now? My team was one of the first set that went out there in the St Ann division. I didn’t ease up off my zones until they [were] completed,” she said.

TIGHT SPOT

Whyte also complained that she has been left in tight spot as she is unable to repay monies that she borrowed to assist in the completion of her zones. She said that she had to rent motor vehicles to show her census takers around their enumeration districts.

“Wah bout people like me who don’t drive? Why it a tek so long fi we get our money? And when we do get it, a wah likkle piece. We same one borrow money fi go rent car or if we have a friend weh have a car, we say when the money run we pay you. Right now, mi know mi owe persons for gas money and dem keep on a call me,” Whyte complained.

She also explained that the census takers, who were under her supervision, are also calling to share dissatisfaction with their payments.

“This morning my census taker called me because she got a pay slip. She was supposed to get paid for another one-and-a-half ED that she has done. The money she got was less than minimum wage and we were told that we would get our money in full,” said Whyte.

At the same time, she further bemoaned that there is a lack of communication coming from STATIN’s headquarters. Whyte said though she has called so frequently that the phone operator recognises her voice, nobody has ever returned her call to explain what is happening with the outstanding payment.

“I had to ask if they plan to do more censuses because where are they going to get people to work? They didn’t come out and say it is a voluntary work or we wouldn’t have gone around and borrowed with the expectation to pay it back when we get paid,” Whyte said.

“Most of the EDs that I got, you cya walk dem inna one day. If your CT is out there and ask for assistance, we have to lef and go out there. And you wah tell me seh we can’t see anything out of everything that we did?”

rochelle.clayton@gleanerjm.com