Govt’s Human Resources Rated Poor

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Monday, 13 August 2012 02:30

By Everton Barnes

Antigua St. John’s - Government’s handling of human resources issues has come in for close scrutiny by the trade union that represents non-established workers, the Antigua Trades and Labour Union (AT&LU), and the union says it does not like what it sees.

AT&LU Industrial Relations Officer, Ralph Potter, said many employee relations issues that arise in a number of government departments and ministries are allowed to escalate into major disputes because the officials handling the matters in the departments quite often are unwilling or unable to settle the matters speedily.

“In many cases, concerns raised by the union are left unaddressed even after the matters have been raised verbally and in writing. What we find is that the officials involved most times do not respond to our letters, and in those cases when they do, it is always very late. Additionally, we find that the discussions go back and forth for an inordinate length of time as no one in these ministries or departments wants to make decisions,” a frustrated Potter outlined.

The union industrial officer said resolving employee related matters in the public sector has become a major challenge for the union to the point where a number of these matters are referred to the Labour Department, but that this does not solve the problem.

“The Labour Department has its own set of challenges. For example, while the department has moved into better accommodations at the Ministry of National Security headquarters, we have now discovered that correspondence sent to the department quite often do not reach the intended party in a timely manner,” he disclosed.

Potter blames the fact that the department’s registry is located in a separate building for this delay. Secondly, he said the department appears to be inundated with a huge amount of industrial relations issues, and he feels that the there is need for additional staff as well as training for the current staff to cope with the situation.

According to the AT&LU official, his union has come across cases of clear signs of ill will by some senior government officials towards their subordinate.

“In fact we have also seen cases of outright spite and malice exhibited towards staff members by senior officers and this is a worrying trend,” he declared.

He gave as one example the case where two members of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) were suspended following an incident where it has been alleged that the late arrival of the EMS team may have contributed to the death of an elderly man. Potter said that it was pointed out to the Permanent Secretary involved, Edson Joseph, that there were in fact three officers. Yet letters of suspension were only presented to two of the individuals.

“The supervisor on duty at the time informed the permanent secretary, and while initially, he said he was not aware of this, the two were suspended pending ‘an investigation’ into the matter,” he noted.

Potter said it is clear to the union that some officials in government see their roles as dishing out punishment, rather than instituting corrective measures to improve the overall efficiencies of the ministries or departments.



“This speaks to the quality of people who have been appointed to some senior positions in government. While this does not apply to every department, too many department heads are placed in positions for which, they are just not suited,” he added.



Potter believes that the general efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector suffer because of this.

“We all lose in this situation because we all interact with a public sector that is not efficient,” he stated.

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