00:00After having attended the Joint Assembly of the Parliament for the visit by the Prime Minister of India,
00:06the opposition leader of Trinidad and Tobago and some of her MPs were observed with a group of workers
00:11affected by the recent non-renewal of contracts with CPEP contractors.
00:17TV6 News spoke with opposition leader Penelope Beckles, who said the attorneys in her party, herself included,
00:23are providing free legal services to the affected CPEP workers and contractors.
00:28This is July month. This is the month when, you know, you're expecting to buy books, buy shoes, buy clothes.
00:36And a lot of the people here are single mothers.
00:38So, I mean, this speech that was given by the Honourable Prime Minister,
00:41and today she spoke about love and love, you know, how much she loved the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
00:46This is not love. This is abuse.
00:47And the fact is, we are coming together with the workers.
00:50We are going to take the matters to court and we're going to do our best to protect the rights of the CPEP workers and the CPEP contractors.
00:58TV6 News sought to find out if the opposition can file anything close to what is known as a class action lawsuit in the U.S.,
01:05given that the opposition has said thousands of workers in the state sector, not only from CPEP, have lost their jobs in the last seven weeks.
01:14Opposition MP and attorney at law Kareem Marcel responded.
01:17So, why is this not a, wouldn't be considered a class action?
01:22We are, the first thing that we have done, we have, we have filed a substantive claim for breach of contract in the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago
01:31against the CPEP Company Limited yesterday.
01:35We have also, we also filed a notice of application for injunctive relief that was served on the CPEP Company Limited.
01:43And with regard to certain claims by members of the new cabinet about certain CPEP contracts during a past PNM administration.
01:50It's public knowledge. I mean, my father had a CPEP contract in 2002 when the government changed.
01:56Of course, the UNC came into office yesterday. Like many other persons, they took away the contract.
02:01But they are now putting it out in the public domain that he has five CPEP contracts.
02:05My father is still alive. My father died more than 10 years ago.
02:09Right, and it's deliberate. And they also made the same comments about my colleague's father here from, and Randall Mitchell.
02:15The opposition has reputed claims by the new UNC-led government that during past administrations led by the PNM, there were issues of serious concern with CPEP.
02:25So the point is that they are also targeting MPs, and they are putting it out in the public domain as though, I mean, that something wrong was done.
02:34The truth is, like everybody else, I mean, they would have applied and they would have been successful.
02:40But, I mean, as I said, that since more than 15 years ago, there's no contract.
02:47After having spoken with the media, the opposition leader and her MPs led the CPEP protesters from in front of City Hall to form a circle in front of the eastern side of the Hall of Justice for a prayer.
02:59They did so under the watch of police officers dressed in riot gear, as there was a heavy police presence in the area after the conclusion of the Joint Assembly of Parliament.
03:07When TV6 News left the scene of the protest, it had ended peacefully.
03:13Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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