Nunez explains ethnic disparity in PTSC hiring
Former trade unionist Clive Nunez, a man who claims to have been involved with public transportation for decades, has said there is nothing sinister about the ethnic imbalance in the hiring of drivers employed at the state-owned Public Transportation Service Corporation (PTSC) offices in Port of Spain and San Fernando.
He also dispelled any idea that the PTSC board was being compromised in any way by any directive from Transport Minister Devant Maharaj with regards the hiring of a specific ethnic group as drivers.
On November 6, in its Weekend edition the Mirror published an article indicating that under the watch of Maharaj, who joined the corporation in December 2010, and later emerged as a Minister of Transport, 97 percent of the new drivers listed in Batch#1 and who took up duty on July 4, 2011 from San Fernando were Indo Trinidadians.
Maharaj has been waging a strong battle for equity of treatment in the allocation of state-resources and hiring practices for his Hindu brothers and sisters and had launched a scathing attack on the former PNM administration for allegedly giving scholarships to Afro Trinidadians.
But Nunez has made it clear that despite reports of questionable hiring practices at the PTSC, his board had no part of that.
“ If you know me really, you will know that I will not go along with that kind of foolishness, I doh make skylark about that,” he said.
He explained, however, that historically Indo Trinidadians have always comprised the majority bus drivers/conductors at the PTSC and its predecessor, which was called the Princes Town Bus Company.
“From a historical prospective there were always more Indians than Africans drivers. For one thing, to be a bus driver you must have a Class 5 and Class 6 license.
“Because the Indians drove trailers and other heavy duty equipment, and again when Caroni Ltd was closed, a number of those persons had experience as well as the Class 6 requirement.
“Very few young people and particularly Africans would have a Class 6,” he said.
Again in defence of his board, Nunez, who served on three consecutive boards, told TnT Mirror, “We don’t have an executive board or executive chairman; we formulate policies. Managers run their department, as other departments. The board cannot tell the HR that the policy is to employ this ethnic group or that ethnic group; we have never done this.
“No Minister has directed our board in any direction like that. When we recruit people they must have the competencies … if we recruit along the East West Corridor, the majority of drivers/conductors would be Africans, but in the rural routes who do you think would respond?”
Nunez made it clear that the PTSC board has no policy about ethnicity.
Yes, but when people of African decent are the majority hired we hear the likes of Sat and Deviant bawling racism….smh…strange indeed…remember what they wanted to do with the police service? Hmmm
What Mr. Nunez says regarding the hiring of Indians and Africans makes perferct sense–along the East-West corridor Africans are prevalent and Indians are mainly from the rural areas. In a country where there are mainly non-white peoples, this issue should not even arise. Bravo comrade Nunez!