Dominica will have to grapple with COVID-19 or sink under its crushing weight, said Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit. He made this statement during a national discource where leaders of the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU) asked for payment increment because of longer work hours associated with the fight against Coronavirus.
DPSU’s General Secretary, Thomas Letang, who represents 4,000 government workers – including doctors and nurses – said members of the union are at the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19 and demands that they be paid more for their services. He argued that those in the healthcare sector be paid for the extra time that would be required to care for coronavirus patients.
But PM Skerrit countered the DPSU leadership by stating that every hand must be on deck in the fight against coronavirus since it is a global pandemic that may not spare any country. He said it is wrong for the DPSU to seize the potential occasion of the pandemic to pick a fight when all the country needs is national cooperation at this time.
“What we need now are not battles but national cooperation,” Skerrit said. “If this virus impacts and gets out of control, there will be no revenue in the country and there will be no country. This is a national crisis that demands a national response. Dominica’s traditional friends are also impacted by the coronavirus.”
The prime minister reminded the DPSU and the opposition that Dominica is an island with limited resources, and that the government must be allowed to combat the imminent threats of COVID-19 first before addressing compensation issues for public workers.
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