THE MINISTER OF LABOUR FALLS DOWN ON THE JOB

It is the job of the Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes to conciliate industrial disputes.  On Wednesday 18 March 201, there was a major dispute when 300 odd prison officers walked off the job and marched down to the Minister of National Security’s office where they were met by barricades and a phalanx of policemen and defence force officers.  Eventually their leader was seen by the Minister, the ever pompous Marvin Dames, who told them go back to work or else.  He said he would get back to them in three days. Nothing was resolved.  Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour whose job it is to settle disputes was sitting in the senate and when asked if he had  a briefing on the matter he said that he was unaware of it. This is a remarkable dereliction of duty. He must have been the only one in the country who was unaware of it. What an irony.