After receiving less than their monthly $18,000 salary in December, schools’ sweeper-cleaners are still awaiting a pay-hike promised to them by former president Bharrat Jagdeo.
Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon said he will check on the status of the assurance by the former president that the grievance would be examined by the newly-elected People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government.
Several of the female workers had late last year protested outside the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the President, lamenting that their paltry salaries could barely meet the basic cost of living expenses such as food, utilities and transportation for themselves and children.
As a result, the then president met with them and promised to see that their work statuses were upgraded and they are paid at least the country’s minimum wage.
Luncheon had said that the matter was being looked at and emphasized the fact that salary increases and other monetary issues which would have to be dealt with by the relevant employment agencies and the Ministry of Finance.
As a result, he said protocol would have to be followed before he could advise on the salary status of the workers.
When contacted yesterday, one of the workers employed at a city secondary school informed that the protesting group had not received word on the update. She did, however, say that last December they received less than their $18,000 per month salary, since schools would have been closed over the Christmas holidays and they would not be working and could not be paid under the part-time agreement they have.
She said she and the other janitors are eagerly looking forward to hearing when they would be upgraded to full-time cleaners and their pay packages put on par with the country’s minimum wage.
She noted that they sometimes have to individually undertake the grueling task of cleaning the huge school buildings, including the washrooms, which, she noted, “ain’t two cents easy fuh smell much less clean.”
