General Secretary of the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU), Thomas Letang, has accused Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of plans to control the union. Letang said the DLP cabinet has no business managing how the DPSU is run. He said any attempts to manipulate or control how union members seek redress for public complaints shall be met with serious objections and protests.
Letang made this statement in response to Skerrit’s plans to set up a machinery to hear and address the complaints of public workers. The prime minister had disclosed some days ago that his administration is aware of the complaints of police officers, nurses and school teachers among other public workers. He said many of the complaints are legitimate and that his government will put a system in place so that public officers can express their worries formally and hope for speedy government attention.
“It is an attempt to control the Public Service and we will not fall for that and any attempt to do so will be met by serious objection and protest by the union,” Letang contented.
The DPSU secretary said the government should not pokenose into public service employments unless it is a contract job which even ought to go through the Public Service Commission. Letang said doing so will amount to victimization and favouritism; and that it is not even the duty of the government to discipline any erring public officer since it is the duty of the PSC to do that.
He added that it is the duty of the PSC to hear the employment concerns of any public workers and not the job of the government Cabinet. He stated that in a situation where a public officer is not satisfied with the intervention of the PSC, he can approach the Public Service Board of Appeal for further redress, and not the Cabinet.
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