Public servants give gov't ultimatum

Trinidad, (CMC):

Public servants on Monday gave the four-month-old Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration until October 1 to respond to their demand for a new wage structure and warned they were prepared to undertake industrial action to meet their demands.

Scores of public workers marched through the streets of the capital under overcast conditions as the leadership of the Public Service Association (PSA) delivered a letter to the Office of the Prime Minister demanding the new wages.

Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar is out of the country attending the United Nations General Assembly debate in New York.

PSA president Watson Duke told repor-ters that the government had until Friday to put a counter proposal on the table.

Avoiding the issue

The PSA is demanding that the basic salaries for public workers should be TT$6,000 (US$1,000) monthly and has accused the Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran of not wanting to discuss the issue.

"We have been suffering for years ... we are not taking anything less than 6,000 dollars. In order to get a pension of 3,000 dollars (US$500) you need to move to a minimum of 6,000 dollars," Duke said.

Also participating in Monday's march were members of the Prison Officers Association (POA) and the Fire Officers Association.

They said they would demand basic salaries of TT$8,000 (US$1, 333) a month.

"We are demanding a minimum of 8,000 dollars, because we put our lives on the line every day. Over the couple last months we have prison officers gunned down, shot at, killed, and we are saying now that the time has come to compensate us because we are not prepared to take it any longer," said Rajkumar Ramroop, president of the POA.