Nov 14 - GSD Condemns Long Term Use Of Short Term Contracts In Care Agency
The GSD says it notes from the answers provided in Parliament by Minister Sacramento to questions posed by the Leader of the Opposition that there are 92 employees of the Care Agency who are currently on short term contracts of less than 12 months. 39 of these are British Gibraltarian and 53 are British non-Gibraltarians and/or non-British.
It is significant, says the Opposition, that 51 of these 92 have been on more than one short term contract for over a year. In other words, once their original short term contracts expired, they were required to sign further short term contracts of under 12 months. Indeed, 13 of these individuals have been on short term contracts for a period of between 3 and 4 years, says the party in what it says can only be characterised as an “abuse of the rights of these workers and an attempt to prevent from acquiring permanent rights.” This is not what you would expect from a Socialist Government, says the GSD.
In addition, argues the Opposition, 33 Care Agency positions are currently filled by employees employed by recruitment consultants who then place those employees in the Care Agency. The reality is, according to the GSD, that often the Care Agency will pay recruitment consultants far more than what the latter will pay the employee placed within the Care Agency. Again, the party explains, many of these employees have been on multiple contracts and are British Gibraltarians and they are paid a wage just above the minimum wage.
A GSD spokesman added “These figures may not provide the entire picture of employees working on contracts of less than 12 months within all areas for which the Minister for Social Services has responsibility and this is a matter on which we are questioning her next week. For people to be on short term contracts for over years is abuse and there is rightly a lot of concern in the Care Agency about this. . Contracts should not be abused in order to prevent workers from acquiring permanent employment rights. That is something that a Socialist Government should not tolerate”.
