Health Control Officers employed with the Ministry of Health and stationed at the Piarco International Airport will no longer work 17 days without getting any off days. 

The announcement was made by the Public Services Association(PSA) First Vice President – Felisha Thomas after the PSA met on Tuesday with representatives from the CPO’s Office, Ministry of Health, and Insect Vector. 

In speaking to PSA Media, Ms. Thomas said that the problem had begun in 2020 when batch three of the health control officers were not rotated out of the Airport, and concerns were raised about the abuse of workers through the 17-day roster that they were forced to follow. 

The roster saw workers having to work two (6 am-2 pm), two (2 pm – 10 pm), and one (10 pm – 6 am) shifts, and returning to work 6 am the following day where the cycle was then repeated. FVP Thomas stated that a rest day can never be considered a day off and questioned the insanity of such work rosters. “If an employee comes off work at 6 am, which means they worked the first 6 hours of the day, how then can management establish that as an employee’s day off?”

While conversing with PSA Media today Thomas said: “Another complaint that was also addressed at the meeting on Tuesday was the repercussions leveled against these Health Control Officers who spoke out against the unfair work arrangements.  She said that these workers were rotated to locations far from their homes when vacancies existed at nearer work locations. 

Thomas noted that to be a clear case of victimization. However, she stated that these transfers will be looked at to address those concerns. 

She stated next Tuesday she will meet with employees to compute the compensation owed to these workers due to the failure of the Ministry to give them their two days off for over one (1) year.