Open Letter From Maclean Webster

Letter to :

The Chief Minister of Anguilla
The Minister of Labour
HE The Governor
The Anguillian

Gentlemen:

Open Letter re Viceroy Project – Employment Terms of Indian Workers

The events of last week [and this week] were a tragedy for Anguilla as it was alleged that the foreign workers employed by Carillion Construction on the Viceroy project were being exploited in a manner closely approximating to slavery. The other signatories and I of this letter believe that the people of Anguilla are owed an explanation by Government.

This is all the more essential owing to the unexplained preferential treatment which the Government has conferred on the KOR Group. It has apparently given approval to that Group for no less than three major projects (as revealed by Dr. Aidan Harrigan as recently as 5th June). That gives them control of approximately 35% of the new rooms approved or waiting approval. How does this match up to the Government’s previously expressed and entirely correct intention never to allow a single developer to secure a dominant position in the economy?

Many of us are deeply ashamed that our Government should have allowed such a situation to arise. We urgently want to know why it did so and what Government proposes to do to rectify the situation. These questions have not yet been answered in anything resembling a satisfactory way, either by Government’s “Public Relations” statement, or by the Press Release issued by the lawyers representing the workers concerned.

There are a number of questions that call for an immediate, direct and honest answer from Governmen:

(a) Why did the Government override the Labour Department when it had apparently been warned by the Labour Commissioner that the terms of employment were inappropriate?

(b) Many of the employees claim that they were presented with blank pieces of paper to sign, rather than completed contracts of employment. Does Government condone that practice? If not, what does it propose to do about it?

(c) If the terms of the contracts failed to comply with the Act, please indicate in what respects they failed to comply and why Government restricted the Labour Department’s freedom to enforce the law?

(d) Will Government please give an assurance that in the future no preferential treatment whatsoever will be accorded the developers or contractors concerned? Will they also confirm that the developers and contractors will be required to comply not only with the employment laws of Anguilla but with all the laws of Anguilla? By this I do not mean that the developers and contractors be allowed the luxury of reinterpretations of the law by the Executive, devised to enable the Executive to accord favourable treatment to their favoured developer for commercial or personal reasons. What I mean is a correct and proper enforcement of the law as it has actually been enacted.

(e) Anguilla’s name has been dragged through the mud by this sorry episode. Government should tell us whether the developers or contractors are in breach of any of the terms of their Memorandum of Understanding concerning the development. If not, why use the MoU, so loosely drafted as to fail to require proper standards of employment terms? If so, what penalties would be open to Government to exact were they so minded?

(f) Government apparently expressed righteous indignation to the lawyers for the workers that the wages are so low. But they abdicated responsibly on the grounds that that was a matter of contract between the contractors and the workers. That seems to be a thoroughly disingenuous response. Is Government saying that in permitting the immigration of a large number of low cost workers, in the face of Labour Department advice to the contrary, the Government gave no consideration to the terms upon which the workers were to be employed? If that is the case, why were these particular employers given exceptional carte blanche to do as they pleased while the terms offered by other applicants for work permits are invariably subject to rigorous scrutiny of their applications? How and why did Government countenance terms which appear to be gross in violation of human rights as well as serious distortion of the economy of Anguilla with potentially disastrous long term results?

(g) In addition, we believe that the only way to ensure that there is no recurrence of this disgraceful affair is to require the appointment of a Minimum Wage Advisory Committee under the provisions of the Fair Labour Standards Act. This is particularly necessary on two grounds.

• Firstly, Carillion Construction, the contractors, apparently sought to justify the level of wages paid to these workers, to the lawyers for the workers, on the grounds that “the wages being paid to the Indian workers were acceptable and exceeded international standards for what is usually paid to Indian workers in the region” (See the lawyers press release of 29th June 2007). Unless I am much mistaken, this is flagrant and inexcusable discrimination on the grounds of race and pays no regard to what is the proper rate for the job being undertaken. While that may not be illegal under the strict letter of the Anguilla law, it certainly seems to me entirely contrary to the spirit in which the fathers of Anguilla Revolution set out to build a fair society for Anguilla, and a concept which I believe all right minded Anguillians would deplore.

• Secondly, the Government disingenuously seeks to wash its hands of responsibility, saying that although they think the wages of the workers are too low, they regard that as a matter of contract between Carillion and their employees. That is patently dishonest. The Government itself connived in the approval of the terms by overriding the advice of the Labour Commission. It is apparent that the Government is unlikely, of it’s own volition, to want to rock the boat and, having regard to the preferential treatment they have accorded the KOR Group, it is not difficult to imagine that it would be contrary to their interests to do so. But if, now that the cat is well and truly out of the bag, they fail to do the right thing by putting an end to these shameful practices, there are many in Anguilla who will not lightly forgive them.

If, as appears to be the case, the Government is effectively “in hock” to the KOR Group, that should be a cause for the utmost concern and condemnation on the part of all right minded Anguillians.

It therefore seems to me that there is the strongest possible case for Cabinet to require the Governor to exercise his power to appoint a Minimum Wage Advisory Committee as a matter of extreme urgency.

By that means, this kind of issue would be taken out of the hands of those whose interests appear to conflict with a fair resolution of the problem and remove the temptation for Government to interfere in the proper functioning of the law.

Yours truly,
Maclean Webster