St Vincent’s Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves has made several allegations regarding the termination of low-level workers by the current NDP government to make room for political supporters. He characterises these actions as a “mark of their powerlessness” and a form of political victimization.
Gonsalves specifically identifies several groups of workers who are being displaced or are at risk:
Kitchen and Cleaning Staff: He describes instances where workers in school kitchens and clinics have been told they are no longer employed, only to be replaced by “this NDP person”.
Agricultural Workers: Gonsalves highlights a significant budget reduction for wages in agricultural research and development, dropping from nearly $4 million to $3 million. He warns these workers that the government is “coming after you to fire you” to accommodate this million-dollar cut.
Home Health and Housing Workers: He notes that home health workers for the elderly were excluded from certain bonuses and expresses concern for housing workers, as the housing budget has been slashed by more than half.
Gonsalves alleges that these terminations are a deliberate strategy to provide jobs for “ranking soldiers” and supporters of the NDP. He says that the government is under pressure from its candidates to hire their “soldiers” and because they cannot fire senior public servants who are protected by the Public Service Commission they are targeting “ordinary workers, flesh and blood” whose wages are relatively low and who lack the same job security.
He describes this as a “hollowing out of the public service” where senior officials are ignored or bullied while low-level positions are treated as “scarcity” to be dispensed to political favorites.
Gonsalves says that these moves are part of a broader “fiscal recklessness” in the new budget. He suggests the government is “temporizing” rather than transitioning, creating a budgeted deficit that will eventually lead to problems paying salaries. He says the administration is engaging in “ministerial arrogance” and using their “administrative authority to do harm” to those they perceive as potential enemies or spies from the previous ULP administration.