Govt doctoring books

Duke said, “we claim 30 percent absenteeism from the workplace.

We have got statistics together now, we saw copies of attendance registers and we are satisfied that those figures are accurate.” He said the union did not intend that Monday’s action would be a fatal or disruptive blow to Government as it was only a first blow.

He said it was a blow of consciousness.

“If it was a fight, we would have called it a ‘chuck off.’ We are saying to them, ‘Hey, be conscious, we don’t like what you are doing to us. Deal with the arrears, deal with the negotiation, deal with the Occupational Health and Safety issues, deal with the pensions, deal with those issues for us’.” Duke said that if there is no real communication or adjustment from the employer to the employee on those issues between now and July, the union will have the second day of resistance which he said would be a little more intense than the one on Monday. He said the idea of Monday’s action was not to create unnecessary disruption but to send a signal to the employer that all was not well. “So it is not a total shutdown that we were looking for and we never said that.” He said that in any case Monday’s protest was just one of many to come and the PSA was very satisfied with the response it got on the first day. The Ministry of Public Administration on Monday countered Duke’s claims, stating in a release issued late in the afternoon that there were no significant reports of absenteeism.

“Checks revealed no unusual absences or reports of disruption to the normal operations of the Public Service despite calls for a day of resistance,” the release stated. “This is especially welcomed in a period when the country’s productivity is being called into question and its reputation is at stake, especially as we seek to invite much-needed foreign investment.”