Berbice security guards still seeking March, April salaries

Guards of the Integrated Security Service, a firm contracted to provide security to Government buildings in Berbice, are calling for the service to be replaced.
The workers have shockingly revealed that some of them are yet to receive their March and April salaries, although the month of May is about to end.
They revealed that one month after that firm took over the contract to provide security to Government buildings, many of them became unhappy with the firm’s performance. They were not paid in time for Christmas, and have had to wait two more months before they were paid again. To date, some of the guards are still querying their December, January and February salaries, which they claim were inaccurately computed.
While some guards have been paid for the past two months, others continue to visit the office in New Amsterdam, Berbice on a weekly basis, seeking not only answers but payments which they should have received since March.
Some of the affected guards told this publication that are afraid to appear in the media to address the issue, having seen the fate of some of their colleagues who did so in the past. Moreover, they have been told to go wherever they want to go to lodge their complaints.
The guards say they now feel helpless, since they took their case to President David Granger on March 17, 2018 and scores of guards in both Regions Five and Six are still owed salaries for previous months’ work.
Both the administrations of Regions Five and Six have officially distanced themselves from the plight confronting the guards, and each has claimed that it has paid the Integrated Security Service for services rendered.
The firm has been blaming the supervisors for incorrect submissions of guards’ particulars, saying that ghost names, incorrect calculations and omissions have resulted in the delay and late payment ever since it was given the contract from December 1.
The firm’s supervisory staff have denied these allegations, claiming they had supervised those same guards when they worked with another firm which had the same contract, and none of those allegations were ever made.
Meanwhile, telephones continue to be disconnected, electricity wires continue to be severed from buildings, and landlords continue to issue notices for tenants to vacate their buildings as the guards wait for the salaries due them, and desperately hope that someone would do something to assist them.
Banks and furniture stores are also issuing letters to the guards, many of whose situations are so dire they now have to borrow money from neighbours to travel to work.