Disgruntled Linden CIIP workers demand payment from LM&TC

Several disgruntled Linden (Region 10: Upper Demerara/Berbice) Community Infrastructure Improvement Project (CIIP) workers on Monday gathered inside the compound of the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC), demanding payments reportedly owed to them for additional work conducted since 2015.
This publication understands that some 53 workers had each been promised half of their payment, which amounts to $12,500; but upon turning up at the Council in seeking same, they were given no certainty regarding their payments. The employees then gathered in the compound to express their frustration. Police and Constabulary staff had to be summoned to remove them.
According to the employees, when they turned up for payment, they were told they would be paid “whenever”. Acting Town Clerk Orleena Obermuller noted, however, that the payment would be facilitated by Friday, since all of the workers could not be facilitated on Monday.

She refuted claims that she had said payment would be made “whenever”. Obermuller said it was agreed during a meeting on Monday that the employees would be given half the payment. The employees were expecting the payment on the same day, which, according to Obermuller, could not be facilitated at the time.
The workers have also lamented that the system of payment at the Council is frustrating. They noted that they are paid in the new month for work done in the previous month.
This publication understands that a confusion in payments in 2015 had seen employees who did not work the extra hours receiving the additional payment as well.
Meanwhile, efforts to contact Linden Mayor Waneka Arindell regarding the issue proved futile. Deputy Mayor Wainewright Bethune, when contacted, said the Linden Town Council had not received any information regarding the circumstances of the issue, as he and Arindell were out of town. (Utamu Belle)