Philipsburg: --- President of the Windward Island Civil Servant Union William Reed is calling on all its members in the civil service to check with the union if they were shortchanged with their vacation allowances. Reed said so far only three of its members provided them with their pay slips which showed there are some discrepancies with the payment. “These three workers began working for government the same time, they receive the same salary and most importantly they are in the same salary scale yet, there is a discrepancy with the vacation allowances which ranges from Naf. 50 to Naf.100.” Reed said he intends to check with the finance department because someone has to tell him what went wrong in the calculation.
Several civil servants expressed their concerns and disappointment in the amount of monies they received from what they expected in their vacation allowances. When asked why they did not meet with the union some of them said the WICSU is not representing its members since there are board members that have political ties. It should be noted that the vice president of the WICSU ran on the Democratic Party slate in the 2007 elections.
This person is now working for the central government. When confronted about the conflict of interest the President of WICSU became rather upset saying that someone sent the reporter to target him. Reed said this matter was raised during one of his board meetings and he believes it is one of the board members who leaked it to the news.
Reed went on to say that he is a man of his words and he does not allow political ties to hinder the representation he gives to his membership which is way over 600. Regarding those civil servants who said they are not getting representation Reed said he is sure they are not members of the union. This is not the first time several civil servants claim they are not getting representation from the WICSU, the same was said when the island government began implementing its salary scales. It was said that Reed was part of the committee putting the scales together and he knew in advance his members were going to be affected.
SMN News further understands that the board of WICSU is having internal problems which are boiling over. It was clear with Reed’s reaction on Tuesday that the matter is now getting to him.
