Urges them to follow legal advice
PHILIPSBURG--National Alliance (NA) leader Member of Parliament (MP) William Marlin advised Pelican workers on Sunday to stick together as a collective body in their fight to be recognised as permanent employees of the "prospective" new owners of Pelican.
Marlin, who met with the workers on Sunday at their request, told The Daily Herald late last night that he had also advised the employees to follow legal advice given to them on the issue. The workers requested the meeting to discuss their concerns and to hear Marlin's views on the matter.
Marlin informed the workers that things seemed to be in their favour, because they had continued working at Pelican since December 15, after it had been auctioned. He said too that the workers had received two salaries in cash since that time and continued to provide their services.
"The [prospective] new owner or someone working on behalf of the new owner has kept them and paid them for their services. Even the workers who were on sick leave and on vacation were paid," Marlin said.
It would be difficult, Marlin said, to dispute that the workers are employed by the new owners and it also would be difficult to say that they are working for the old owners when the old owners no longer run Pelican. He said at the same time that the auction was not completely finalised.
"I am not a lawyer, but lawyers and judges can have differing opinions," Marlin said. "My advice to them is to follow legal advice and stay together as a team. Fight as a collective body and not as individuals, because the minute you allow yourselves to be divided then it will not be [good]."
Marlin said the workers had indicated that they still hadn't seen the agreement signed by Workers Institute for Organised Labour (WIFOL) President Theophilus Thompson with Royal Resorts Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Richard Corso close to midnight last week Wednesday.
The agreement was signed against the advice of the union's legal representative Bonita Hart. Hart had said she had advised Thompson against signing a document he had sent to her, but what he had actually signed had not been sent to her. She made it clear that she was just an adviser and the union president reserved the right not to follow her recommendations.
Thompson was scheduled to meet with the workers last week Thursday night, but this did not take place due to a meeting of the Central Committee of Parliament in which Thompson was present.
The union meeting was supposed to have been held at the WIFOL building on Sunday afternoon, but it could not be ascertained whether this meeting had taken place. When this newspaper visited the WIFOL building, only a handful of workers were there. Thompson had promised to return a call to the newspaper to report on the issue, but hadn't done so up to press time.
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