THE CRUELTY is the point. That’s the only convincing explanation for the government’s move on September 10 to send home URP workers mere weeks after its massive Cepep cull.
To hear Khadijah Ameen tell it, the URP terminations are about savings. Government is heroically tackling corruption; too many “ghost gangs” haunt the payroll. Yet, great is the forbearance of the UNC. The workers, the line minister said, were gifted five months. Phased is an ongoing – and perpetually self-replicating – “restructuring,” which the government is and will “be rolling out.” Coming soon to a town near you: meaningful employment. Hurrah.
Nobody is fooled by the spin. This week’s reality was of workers being sent home with no specifics about the future. They were given a month’s salary in lieu of notice – which any other employee would be entitled to – and not told of plans to allow them to re-apply. The name of the work scheme discloses its nature: Unemployment Relief Programme. Yet, no genuine effort has been made to give these vulnerable people, many with children, a soft landing. Who voted for this? Which part of the UNC manifesto says, “callous URP purge”?
The cabinet is well aware of the concerns raised about its June Cepep firings. It’s decided the best response is disdain. Hawking contempt for the electorate under the guise of a structural reset, it risks playing with fire by fomenting social unrest. Antagonising thousands of poor people will only make governance harder. Unemployment fell to just 4.9 per cent in the first quarter, but the Central Bank believes the economy has softened in 2025.
No one disputes that the URP, employing 19,788 up to July 2024, needs reform. Legitimate are the state’s worries about sleaze and illegality. But the argument that mass termination at will is the answer is unconvincing, especially if announced on the same day when a $887 million Piarco Airport corruption judgment is confirmed in America and there is silence from officials as to how the treasury is to be recompensed.
Casual, seasonal and fixed-term workers are arguably not covered by retrenchment protections; the law lamentably creates an underclass. But what do the UNC’s labour allies say about such brazen advantage?
URP spending is down. In the last decade, it’s been about $300 million per year. But between 2010 and 2015, during the first Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration, it moved from $418 million to $718 million, even amid a “restructuring” overseen by her office that was, surprise, surprise, also meant to tackle ghost gangs. Perhaps Ms Persad-Bissessar and her ministers are pursuing, in the reverse direction, unfinished business. The government’s cynical calculus appears to be that enough voters will think all unemployed people are gangsters and simply will not care.
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