Opposition Leader Mia Mottley offered three ideas yesterday to mitigate the suffering of recently retrenched workers: lend them some agricultural land, decriminalise vending and restructure mortgages.
Promising the Opposition would assist the Government, she told the House of Assembly that she expected mitigation efforts would already have been put in place following the 3 000 public sector layoffs, and asked what those retrenched workers would do to support their families and pay rent when their unemployment benefits ended.
In fact, she asked whether Government understood that the Drainage Unit workers would stop getting unemployment benefits in two weeks’ time.
During debate on the Special Loans (Amendment) Act, she called for mitigation measures to ease the anticipated suffering, and promised to go anywhere with the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance or any Government member if Government made available parcels of land for some retrenched workers.
