Some 15 housekeepers from the Coral Strand Hotel and another group of construction workers yesterday took their unpaid salary, overtime pay grievances respectively to the employment department.

It was around 9.50am that the group of housekeepers was seen at Independence House after they had been received by employment officials.

Jacqueline Gabriel, one of the housekeepers, said they are really frustrated as they have not yet received their salary for June.

“We were supposed to have been paid our salary on July 5 but today is July 7 and nobody is giving us any information regarding why payment has been delayed and we are frustrated. So as a group we went to see our general manager who told us that the hotel’s account has been frozen so we would be assisted by the government, therefore we have come to find out when the government will release the money so our salaries can be paid,” she said.

Another of her colleagues vented her frustration out loud noting that like everybody else they have utility bills, daycare fees to pay, food to buy, children to take care of and on top of that they have to pay for bus fares to go to work and they cannot meet their expenses without their salaries.

Stephanie Boniface, senior employment officer, said they are aware of the situation as they had been informed by the hotel management and the necessary discussions are ongoing with the concerned authorities to address it and the salaries are expected to be paid during the course of this week.

Meanwhile, another group of around 30 workers from a construction company based at Pointe Larue also brought their concerns to Independence House yesterday.

Ms Boniface confirmed that at the end of May they received the complaint that overtime, work done on public holidays were not being paid. A meeting was held with the employer and another one with both employer and workers to try and resolve the matter and factual documents were requested by the employment department to be analysed for breach of the law, but the employer did not meet the deadline to comply which was this week but has instead asked for a five-day extension to finalise the required documents.

She said it is only after receiving the documents that a decision on whether or not there has been any breach of the law will be made.

Marie-Anne Lepathy