Letang accuses Skerrit of using junior clerks for political mileage

Thomas Letang addressing DPSU members at the rally

General Secretary of the Dominica Public Service Union (DPSU), Thomas Letang believes that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has used the recently held meeting with junior clerks to make political mileage.

Skerrit called the meeting on Thursday and announced that his government will appoint 53 junior clerks into the public service.

However, Letang said during an interview with Dominica News Online (DNO) on Friday, that calling public officers to tell them that they are going to be appointed doesn’t make any sense.

“I believe the Prime Minister is just using that meeting with the junior clerks to make political mileage,” he said.

The DPSU general Secretary accused the prime minister of doing nothing about a situation which Letang said Skerrit was aware of.

“You know that there are 53 vacant positions. For years, we have been calling on you to appoint the people, making a case for them, explaining what they are losing, getting the same basic salary for ten (10) years …They don’t get study leave and the gratuity will only start after they are appointed…” he explained. “We are having a meeting; now, you are calling them.”

He suggested that the Prime Minister’s meeting with the junior clerks was unnecessary and was intended to prevent people from attending the DPSU rally on Thursday afternoon.

He stressed that over the years the union has been calling on the government to appoint these workers, cognizant of the negative implications of their non-appointment in terms of their inability get study leave, annual increment or to take a bank loan.

“But nobody has been taking us seriously,” the union official noted. “You knew the vacant positions were there. All you had to do, was make the recommendations to the Public Service Commission for their appointment.”

Letang promised that the union will monitor the situation and is going to make a case for the junior clerks once they are appointed, “that we get a commitment that their years of service as non-appointed employees will be considered.”

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16 Comments

  1. Lin clown
    April 15, 2019

    Dr Skerrit reign will not come to an end soon.Mr.Letang,Mr.Martim,Mr.Rodney,Rosie Felix.Mr.Durand,Mr Leblanc,Mr.Linton.The only way change will come is by the ballot and no other way.Dr.Skerrit will call election when HE is ready.Labour will win again.So Letang go represent thCivil Servants in an honest way and not every election year

  2. Envar
    April 15, 2019

    Mr. Thomas, i do believe that is time for you to go. You duty as a unionist is to lobby with the Government for better working conditions, you as a unionist have to take the government to task before these issues arise. You cannot even negotiate a salary increase of better working conditions but you want to run your mouth.

    Mr. Letang, please tell Dominicans why you cannot negotiate, why you are so silent. It is because the union has a company that negotiates with the very same government for contracts into security and janitorial services.. A company you and certain persons built to get the contracts when government was going into privatization, hence competing with the private sector.

    So you like a big tehbeh when it comes to negotiation and now and then you does just barble some …. for people to swallow.

    You are a unionist and you should function as that, not as a political inciter.

  3. mine
    April 14, 2019

    Thomas, you are using this for your political agenda but in the mighty name of Jesus God loves Dominica and the problems you are trying to cause he will block it out in his mighty name amen.

    • %
      April 14, 2019

      Don’t involve God’s name in your cesspit of corruption! Your disrespectful soul..Is the God you are referring to is your God, Skerrit??
      Your Sackway Soo Tee Wer!!!
      Skerrit Must Go
      Skerrit Must Go
      LAZY Skerrit Must Go Now

    • Karl Orndem
      April 15, 2019

      Letang isnt going up for politics. He represents Public Servant’s interests.

  4. %
    April 14, 2019

    Skerrit will use anything for political milage… It’s like he has no heart, or if he has one, it has been overtaken by wicked intentions .
    Reasons why this wicked MISLEADER needs to go!!!
    Skerrit Must Go
    Skerrit Must Go
    LAZY Skerrit Must Go Now

    • Mom
      April 14, 2019

      % calling the PM derogatory term just shows who you are. Do you have a Heart? The two scholarships that was ment for the children of Marigot what happened to them? Isn’t that fraud, decit, and theft. Have you children attend the school, were they born there, have they ever lived in the Marigot Constituency? There should be records so defend it. If you are not trustworthy of small things, how can we trust you with the Dominica treasury? % you walk-in with your eyes close.

      • Amarossa
        April 15, 2019

        But Skerritt not living in Vieille Case either. He SOLD his house in Vieille Case, from what I’ve heard. His children are not attending Vieille Case Primary School (Baroness Sousay Sel School). So I don’t see your point.

        So help Skerritt scrub off his “kwass” first before you go jumping in fire for him.

        Lennox Linton’s children earned their scholarship fair and square through hard work and determination. They were not bought a space in an elite boarding school like Maleek.

        So take your chill pill and go sit in a corner.

    • "Blessings"
      April 15, 2019

      You sound like Blessings ehe.

  5. Man bites dogs
    April 14, 2019

    Letang come off high horse 🐴 and stop using Mr Skerrit as your smoke screen you been around for donkey years enjoying a good life on the backs of other people sweat pretending to working on their behalf when all along for years you been working only for Workers party, when that same workers party was not paying public officers for w/ks and months you were nowhere to be seen. Now today public officers are in a much better position than under so-called Workers clowns party you coming with your crazy crap after you have been drinking Letang, behave yourself and get off the monkey tree……
    I have also noticed that DNO is not posting my comments lately as you seem to have a problem with labour supporters… Just a quick asked!!

    ADMIN: The comments you are referring to were clearly defamatory or in at least one case stated rumour as fact. As been stated many times before, this is not in keeping with our comments policy: https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/policies/#comment-policy

  6. Confused
    April 14, 2019

    I’m reading the comments and I’m confused why some people would even dislike the previous 2 comments or what Mr. Letang said for that matter. It is clear for the world to see that the PM is using politics to damage the lives of so many in Dominica. Just imagine for all these years cost of living increasing, wages stagnant and are the lowest in the OECS and maybe even CARICOM, and you can’t face a financial institution as a young person to elevate your living situation, you aren’t entitled to study leave etc, all while busting your butt while some just galavant around the world, and some people will come on here and dislike what Mr. Letang is saying?

    Dominicans we need to be more patriotic than this. We need to love and care for our people more. This continued selfishness and greed needs to stop. In order for Dominica to grow and advance, we have to do it together as a people and that includes standing by each other not only in good times, but in the rough times too…

  7. Ibo France
    April 14, 2019

    What Mr. Sherrit did was a vulgar political act. As if by magic, these positions miraculously appeared just in time for general elections. The livelihood of public servants is just a political chest game for him. What manner of man would deprive his fellow men and women of their due appointments, some as long as twenty years, then use them to get re-elected to power. Only a heartless, morally depraved person does this. TIME’S UP!

  8. April 14, 2019

    Everything is for a time, Skerrit your raign must come to an end after 19 years U have failed we the people of Dominica. we have had enough of you and your corrupt Government so now it’s time for you to go. enough is enough.

  9. Braindamage
    April 13, 2019

    For the past donkey years, Skerrit has failed to address the cry of the
    unappointed servants.
    But he the Skerrit and his 18 band wagons will be very disappointed soon.
    He can give appointments, he can give money, he can give houses,
    He can promise Airport, he can fire his Parl-Reps, but nothing will save him this time.

  10. Ahab & Jezebel
    April 13, 2019

    But Mr. letang, Skerrit used a destructive storm like Erik for political mileage. 2 years later he used Maria with the blow-go-dow help we got, the food, plywood, galvanize, rice for political mileage. So tell me if is junior clerks that badly need a job Roosevelt Skerrit will not use. We talking about a man that has failed MISERABLY, after 19 long years in office and like a drowning man he looking for any straw to hold on. So I am not surprised that he using junior clerks for political mileage. The man is so dangerous that if it were possible for him to send another destructive storm before the elections, he would have sent it no matter how many people would die or hurt. Ahab would do that, so too would Pharoah, Nebukadnezar Sadam Hussain, Muammar Gaddafi, his current friend Maduro and all evil leaders one could think of. This man will create a bad situation if has to, just for political mileage because hiding in power is all he cares about

  11. Gouvelma
    April 13, 2019

    Hey Letang. You seem to have read my comment. Skerritt is using every possible situation for political mileage. He is now coming to the realization that the walls are coming down and his government is on the way out so he is trying to buy and bribe public servants. He knew the situation a long time ago. He really could not appoint the clerks. He bankrupted Dominica so when it became necessary to appoint this workers there was no money to pay them so he couldn’t. Now that elections is near he is trying to get them on his side. Hope they are not fooled. They have lost a lot over the years because they were not appointed. They need to make him pay. They need to vote him out. He doesnt care about public servants. He is only about feathering his nest. When he should have been devising a way to pay the public servants he is using tax payers money to take Melissa on a joy ride to the UN. She is not a public servant. Why was she there? Corruption and nepotism are his coffee and tea.

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