Communications Workers Union leader Clyde Elder has said the appointment of former CNC3 editor Khamal Georges is unfair to the recently retrenched 486 TSTT workers.
In a brief phone interview with Newsday on Friday, Elder described Georges' appointment to Amplia Communications as a slap in the face to the workers who were let go.
George's position in the company has not yet been identified.
“Amplia Communications is owned by TSTT, so if TSTT has no money, Amplia has no money,” he said. “His qualifications are not the issue. What is so special about him?
"If (TSTT) has no money to keep 468 workers, how can they have money to bring on Georges? If it have no money for them, it have no money for Georges either.”
He said TSTT's claim that it could no longer afford to pay those workers was disingenuous if tit could pay Georges.
Elder had earlier claimed that Amplia had hired Georges at a significantly higher salary than his predecessor.
On Friday, he said he could not confirm Georges’ salary offer.
Last Sunday, speaking at the UNC’s weekly media conference at the Opposition Leader’s office in Port of Spain, Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh asked where and when the vacancy at Amplia was announced.
“We understand that Georges was hired to do the same job as a recently retrenched worker who was earning $25,000 a month, but he will be earning $75,000 a month.”
Indarsingh called on the Prime Minister and TSTT CEO Lisa Agard to notify the public of the terms and conditions of Georges’ contract: “What special-duty allowance has he been granted, and what expertise and background he brings to this post.”
Indarsingh claimed Guardian Media Ltd, Georges' and Agard's previous employer, had an unusually close relationship with the government and said Georges apparently had a monopoly on interviewing the Prime Minister.
He also noted former PNM candidate for Barataria/San Juan Jason Williams was now host of CNC’s morning programme.
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