Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 7 weeks ago
Over 400 Port of Spain City Corporation workers are without pay today, as the Corporation says it has not received releases from the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government to pay salaries. Port of Spain Mayor Chinua Alleyne notes that he had been warning that this situation would occur, and laments that even now, the Corporation cannot say when exactly workers will have funds in their accounts. Rynessa Cutting reports.
Transcript
00:00It's payday, but there's no salary in the accounts of over 400 Porta Spain City Cooperation workers this month.
00:08Up to 2 p.m. today, the city has received no additional allocation in order for us to make payroll
00:18for this month.
00:19That means that for the month of June 2026, no civil servants have as yet been paid.
00:27Usually, the corporation would pay salaries three working days before the end of the month, which means that we should
00:34have released payments yesterday so that all civil servants would have received their salaries by the end of the working
00:41day today.
00:43This issue is affecting about 446 employees that are civil servants in the city and over 180 of them are
00:54city police officers.
00:55Mayor Alain laments that salaries are not the only obligations that have been negatively impacted by what he has termed
01:04the underfunding of the corporation.
01:06We currently have a shortfall for salaries and COLA of almost $13 million for the year.
01:14We have a shortfall for garbage collection of almost $4 million for the year.
01:18And we also have a shortfall for wages and COLA, which is where we pay our daily-rated workers of
01:24over $1 million.
01:26And it really begs the question, if the ministry is not able to give us money to pay our civil
01:31servants their salaries,
01:33then when are they going to give us the money so that we could pay daily-rated workers their back
01:37pay and pay the daily-rated workers their wage increase?
01:40The mayor notes the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government was allocated an additional $179.2 million in the
01:50mid-year budget,
01:51but the ministry must make the determination as to how the monies will be distributed.
01:57Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
01:59Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
02:00Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
02:02Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
02:02Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
02:03Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
02:03Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
02:04Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
Comments