Telephone Services Management Unit not paid for major additional duties since 2017
Since being assigned the major additional duty of processing all government utility bills roughly three years ago, the Telephone Services Management Unit (TSMU) has not been remunerated for those services.
This is according to the 2020 Standing Finance Committee (SFC) report. The TSMU’s Manager, Reynell Turnbull said, his department has been processing the government’s water, water suppliers, landline, mobile and electricity bills.
“Since 2017, the TSMU has been tasked with processing all utility bills for the entire government and to date, no compensation has been received for the additional duties,” Turnbull stated when he met with the 13 legislators that make up the SFC late last year.
He also said the relevant documentation for remuneration had already been submitted. The TSMU manager further encouraged members of the SFC to investigate the matter.
TSMU has been saving gov’t $500K yearly
Turnbull said that over the two- to three-year period since taking charge of processing the bills, his department had saved the Government of the Virgin Islands nearly $500,000 annually.
According to Turnbull, some of these savings “came from telecom bills, non-payment of late fees to water companies, and errors identified in electricity bills”.
Responding to the TSMU’s complaint during the SFC proceedings at the time, Opposition legislator Melvin Turnbull recommended that the compensation issue be dealt with by Utilities Minister Kye Rymer and Premier Andrew Fahie.
The SFC report did not have any record of Rymer or Premier Fahie giving any guarantees of addressing the matter.
The report further did not outline the full sum needed to compensate the TSMU’s staff. When Turnbull was asked to provide the sum, he said he did not have those figures readily available.
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As long as they did not carry out the work outside of normal working hours for which they have been paid, what compensation are we talking about?
Yes, some of the extra duties required weekend hours/overtime. Be fair and be real. It is more than they normally do so they should be compensated.
If the duties are fitting into the normal work day what in pickings were they doing all these years? Just sitting. The public service bloated period.
The DUTTY NEW BVI PA Board is sickening. Had the staff standing up in the hot sun for 5 hours waiting on them after they was late to a meeting they called to tell us that we getting our increments at the end of January 2020 in exchange for them Canceling our Christmas party. And you know the time came and past and them ain’t pay us our increments or give the staff an update? We need go on strike and teach these dutty wutless people a lesson and let drugs pass thru the port. These new VIP people very nasty!
where ion your contract does it state you are entitled to a Christmas party?
thats the problem entitlement
Well don’t come announcing it to us ayo nasty MS! That’s why drugs will stay passing thru the Port ya’ll board members and management have no regards for human life!
Organizations typically reassigned, reshuffled and realigned work, work processes, roles and responsibilities…….etc all the time to improve functions and services and avoid and/or reduce cost. Is this an accretion of duties that require TSMU personnel to work significant over time to accomplish along with previously assigned duties? Are the additional duties require work above TSMU personnel paygrade?
If TSMU personnel are required to work overtime, overtime eligible personnel should be paid overtime and those that are not overtime eligible can/should be given compensatory time. Additionally, if personnel are performing tasks above paygrade they should be compensated at the higher rate. On the other hand, if personnel are just doing routine work and pay grade related work 40 hours per week, additional pay may not be warranted.
@Diaspora,you sound like a Human Resources professional. At one time my employer rewrote my job description, I protested for more pay but the determination was that the rewritten job description was not an accretion of duties and was within the scope of the job. Though I didn’t like the outcome, the only choice was to quit or do the job. The lesson learnt was that additional duties assigned do not automatically mean more pay; it depends on the scope of the additional duties.
In regards to the TSMU personnel, suggest requesting a desk audit. Audit requested, HR will conduct the audit and make a determination. But invariably what happens is that department heads/division directors/managers/supervisors will coordinate with HR before rewriting job descriptions.