(SNO) — With cops reportedly working long hours in Saint Lucia, the Police Welfare Association (PWA) is expressing concerns over the matter.
President of the association, Travis Chicot, described the matter as “worrisome”.
“It is becoming a little bit worrisome to the Police Welfare Association in terms of the working hours,” he told MBC Television.
According to him, officers report to work at 9 a.m. on Mondays and remain till 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
“Our police officers have complained and as a welfare association, we believe that it is fit,” he remarked. “As it now stands, when we’ve done our calculations and we’ve done our investigations, when we look at the two days in, two day out system of work, we are persons in this country who are working in excess of 72 hours in a week.”
He said the International Labour Organization stipulates that a work week is 40 hours a week and he thinks that officers should be properly compensated for the hours they work per week.
Chicot said many police officers have spoken about high anxiety levels and many are seeking medical attention because of the long work hours.
“A few police officers are saying it is causing them a toll on the body, so some of them are receiving sick leave,” he stated. “So the Police Welfare Association believes the days for two days in, two days out must come to an end.”
He revealed that the rate of attrition in the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force is very high.
“Police officers retire in quick order,” he said. “We have a course of 50 officers presently at the training school but we still know it will not full the numbers in the police force. We have tried to solve the issue with employing special police constables but even then we are confronted with an issue where these persons are working, are doing the very same job with regular police officers but are receiving different pay.”
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