Six staff members of the Palms institution, including the Administrator, were dismissed yesterday with immediate effect for their part in a July 4 protest where they refused entry to Minister Dale Bisnauth and other officials.

In response, the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has organised a sit-in of all staff members starting today. The union has also asked for an urgent meeting with recently appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, Phulander Kandhi who signed the termination letters.

Stabroek News spoke with GPSU Research Officer Chandrawattie Persaud, who said the likelihood of legal action being taken should not be ruled out.

According to Persaud, the Administrator Justina McKinnon is due for retirement later this year and has already received two-thirds of her benefits. Her dismissal now has implications for the remaining one-third of her benefits and her pension.

McKinnon’s dismissal letter cites Section 10:01 of the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act No. 19 of 1997 which states, “An employer is entitled to dismiss summarily without notice or payment of any severance or redundancy allowances or terminal benefits, any employee who is guilty of serious misconduct.”

Stabroek News understands McKinnon received her dismissal letter after she arrived for work at the Brickdam old age home yesterday morning. A representative of the ministry delivered the other dismissal letters during the early afternoon.

The other sacked employees include: Fabian Brewster and Bridget Odell (both are nurses), Dion Jones (a nurse’s aide), and Gemme Hinds and Christine Barlow, a seamstress and a maid respectively.

Hinds said the reason for their dismissal, as indicated by the letters, was their involvement in a protest on July 4, which prevented Minister Dale Bisnauth, PS Kandhi and other ministry officials from installing an interim management committee at the Palms.

At the time, the protesting group had told this newspaper they were unaware of the ministry’s intention to install the committee and denied “physically” stopping the entry of Bisnauth and other members of his team into the building.

Meanwhile, a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release yesterday said the decision to dismiss the employees was taken by “the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security in collaboration with the Public Service Ministry...”. GINA referred to the July 4 incident and noted the ministry’s team had been “met by an unruly group who abandoned their positions at the Palms to prevent the team from entering the premises. The Minister and other officials considered this behaviour unacceptable and an apology was demanded. However, these workers did not apologise because they did not think it was necessary. They were also told by their Union, the GPSU, not to apologise.

Ministry officials are of the opinion that such disrespectful behaviour during official working hours would have a negative effect...” hence their decision. The situation is being closely monitored by Ministers Bisnauth and Bibi Shadick, the release concluded. A GINA report on Monday however contained information which conflicted with yesterday’s release. In that release, headlined “No nurse to be dismissed from the Palms”, the opening paragraph said disciplinary action “will be taken against staff of the Palms, but no nurse will be dismissed.” Paragraph 6 of the same release however stated, “A source from the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, said disciplinary action including dismissal will be taken against a number of persons at the institution.”

The Palms has been wracked by unrest for several months now. Several staff members including nurses initiated industrial action at the government-owned home for elderly Guyanese, in protest over their working conditions. The group had complained about the non-payment of uniform allowances, poor electrical and sanitary facilities, ineffective security and the lack of proper food for residents.

Then Permanent Secretary Mitra Devi Alli had said the Ministry had not been aware of the situation but had received reports of food being stolen from the institution’s stores. Minister Shadick later apologised for this comment after the Palms workers demanded it.

But Shadick had noted that the Ministry spent large amounts of money on food and cleaning supplies. She added that $6M of an $8M capital budget allocated to the Ministry for this year would be used for massive rehabilitation. The recruitment of senior supervisory staff would also be launched.

The Ministry has since begun repair works at the Palms and has commenced the recruitment of senior supervisory personnel as indicated in separate releases from GINA.

GINA also stated that the Ministry was considering privatising the kitchen operations given that $3.5M had been spent on food but residents still complained they were not being properly fed.