CEPEP WORKERS DEMAND REHIRING

CCNTV6

Scores of former CEPEP employees are demanding answers from the government over the recent termination of hundreds of contracts which led to the dismissal of thousands of workers.  On Wednesday they protested outside CEPEP’s Ste Madeleine head office, calling for dialogue and assurances they would be rehired when new contracts are issued.  Media personnel were locked out of the CEPEP building when they attempted to contact the company’s CEO for comment.  Our reporter Cindy Raghubar-Teekersingh was there and tells us more.

Transcript

00:00Termination letters to over 300 CPEP contractors on Friday left over 10,000 of their employees

00:08on the breadline.

00:09I used to work CPEP, it's no more.

00:13I would like to get an answer of what and when and why.

00:17Why they do us that because they know that we are poor people in this country, we have

00:22lives too, we have bills too.

00:25Many are left in a place of uncertainty.

00:28They've heard talk of being rehired pending the outcome of an audit.

00:31But no one knows for sure.

00:33On Wednesday, contractors and their employees woke to the CPEP head office in St. Madeline

00:38in protest, demanding answers and hoping to be rehired.

00:43As much as we love people like to say, it's small money.

00:46The same small money was doing something for the children.

00:51It was feeding them.

00:52It was doing something.

00:53Let me tell you something.

00:55That spoon, it might not be a pot spoon, but that little teaspoon is doing something.

01:00I want to know when will we get to mark the CPEP work and how soon and how sure this is

01:07for us.

01:08You see, all these people have seen here, nobody here is begging.

01:11They're standing for what they're working for for the past um, ten years, couple of years.

01:16The promise of a final one-month payment by the minister, they say, will do little to nothing

01:27for families, especially those with children and upcoming book lists needed for school.

01:32On reaching the front steps of the building, workers called out to officials inside, hoping

01:45to get clarification, but none came.

01:49Members of the media attempted to speak with CPEP's CEO, Keith Eddy, but were told they

01:54could not enter the building.

01:56Hi, were you told that members of the media can't enter the CPEP building?

02:21Shortly afterwards, a senior operations officer at CPEP said he contacted the CEO, who informed

02:27him he could not at that time speak with media personnel and that he was seeking advice.

02:33CPEP, which was previously under the Ministry of Local Government, has been moved to the

02:38Ministry of Public Utilities.

02:41Line Minister Bari Padarat says the move to terminate contractors will facilitate a much-needed thorough

02:47review and audit of CPEP, he says, it was uncovered that the last administration approved hundreds

02:54of contracts days and weeks before the general election.

02:58We spoke with a few such contractors on Wednesday, who called the terminations unfair, saying it

03:04might have been politically motivated.

03:06Minister Padarat says CPEP hires contractors and the contractors hire workers. However, the

03:29government has approved a final one-month payment to the terminated contractors, money from which

03:34he says, it is expected they do what is right and give workers a salary to cover the month

03:40of July.

03:42Cindy Raghumar Chika Singh, TV6 News.

03:45.

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