THE EDITOR: The Prime Minister continues to provide examples that he will misquote laws and/or, perhaps wilfully, misunderstand statutes. But the citizenry also has a collective responsibility to reject any leader with such a penchant.
During the interview to give an update of the plans for health care in Saint Lucia, the Prime Minister reminded us that the Labour Party Administration had “statutized” the Owen King European Union (OKEU).
He went on to inform us that ALL workers at Victoria Hospital would be interviewed for work at the OKEU and that those who were accepted would be “retired from the government, they would be paid off and they would then now have a new engagement with Millennium Heights.”
What! The workers would be paid off?
Frankly, I could not understand how the Labour Party administration would have crafted legislation that would cause such hardship to workers!
Public workers are generally entitled to a full pension after serving a minimum number of years (let us say 27) and a worker who has served for less than those number of years is paid a pension based on a formula that significantly disadvantages the worker.
This intention to pay off the workers at the time they are employed by Millennium Heights is a travesty that should never be tolerated.
So, I found and read the Act and I was relieved that the act makes no such provision.
Chapter 34(4) of the Millennium Heights Act makes provision for the workers to be transferred to the Board of the Millennium Heights. Why then, does the P. M. insist that workers from VH must be dismissed, thereby losing their precious pension?
Does the Prime Minister even understand the laws of the land? Does he understand the value of following the laws of the land? (Urban Dolor)