Grand Case---Construction workers of Kapro Construction are continuing with industrial actions which begun on Thursday. Workers on the site on Friday said they are suffering and management of Kapro is not willing to attend to their grievances. The construction workers said they are not paid on time and neither are they paid accurately for their overtime work.One of the workers said they also have improper tools to work with and in many cases they do not get their materials on time to proceed with the job.
The workers said when they contact management they are falsely accused by management. Another worker said they do get paid but mostly late. He said so far they have not received their pay checks for the month of January even though they are supposed to be paid by the 5th of month.
The employee said normally they are paid by wire transfer but when management realized the workers were going on strike they called some of the workers to the office on Thursday and offered them a check if they were willing to continue working. The man said some of them even checked their accounts on Friday and still their January salary was not paid. He said management does not want to resolve the situation since this has been going on a for a long period of time. Another worker said the company would even go as far as deducting monies from their salaries for materials and that does not belong to their company. Some of the workers said they are even verbally abused by one of the bosses.
These people do not have any respect for the workers and their families or personal lives. Another worker said he was asked to go back on the roofs at 4pm earlier this week, the time he was leaving work and because he refused the next day he was suspended from work. The worker said even though management removed his time card and told him he was suspended he is reporting to work.
The workers said they are receiving warning letters constantly. One worker said he was given a warning letter when he stayed home to attend to family matters regarding the Haiti earthquake tragedy. The worker said 75% of the workers on the site are Haitians and to date management never expressed any form of condolences or sympathy to their Haitian workers. Instead those that stayed home for a day or two to attend to their family matters were given warning letters. The worker said the Haitians that are working for Kapro are humans and they should be treated as humans, most of them have lost close relatives during the January 12 earthquake. Another worker said the workers have to rush to the bushes if they need to ease themselves since management of Kapro did not provide bathroom facilities for their workers. "We go into the bushes and by the pond to ease ourselves. At one time government sent inspectors to check on the insanitary conditions of human filth next to the ponds."
They said most of the workers are asked to bring along their personal tools to work for the company and if any of the company's tools got damaged while working management would deduct monies from their salaries for the damaged tools. He said if the workers want to see management they are compelled to make appointments and they would only get the appointment two months later. Their objective during these industrial action is to get rid of one of the coordinators of the project whom they said are oppressing the workers.
Efforts made to obtain a comment from management were futile on Friday. Management said they were not willing to make a comment.
Union representative Rudy Hyman said the labour department on the French side is aware of the current problems faced by the workers. Hyman said the labour inspectors are aware of the current situation however; they are not able to intervene at this time. Hyman said the strike will continue on Monday. He said the union has 12 points to discuss with management and unless these people get around the table to discuss the concerns of the workers, the strike will not end.
