NIB workers protest

A small contingent of employees of the National Insurance Board staged a mid-morning demonstration yesterday outside the Board’s office at Furlonge Street, Point Fortin.

Armed with placards reading “After 31 years service, salary is $3,641 and no more”; “we need a better salary in step with NIB” and “let salary and work balance”, workers expressed dissatisfaction with the Board’s management. They claimed NIB’s management had refused to meet with their representative union, the Public Services Association, to discuss proposed increases in wages and salaries. They were joined by several pensioners who called on Government to implement the proposed increases to NIB pensions.

PSA representative, Terrance Regis, said employees did not have an increase in salaries since 1998, while the Board’s top management had secured increases for themselves for the past five years, he said. An NIB employee, who did not wish to be identified, said they were “fed up” with management’s attitude towards workers and would continue to demonstrate until their grievances were addressed by the Board. Similar demonstrations are being planned for tomorrow at the Siparia area offices, with a mass demonstration at the Southern Regional offices, Harris Promenade, San Fernando, on Friday.