St. Lucia Grounds Hit by Work Stoppage

The Government of St. Lucia has ordered the main contractor at the National Cricket Stadium at Gros Islet to take any money owed to a sub contractor, Finn Tannberg and pay it to his workers. The man owed his workers in excess of EC$80,000.

Workers went on strike two weeks ago, charging that Tannberg has not paid them for weeks, even though his company, Descon, has been paid by the main contractor for work done so far. Police had arrested Tannberg for issuing bad cheques. He was charged, released on bail and given a court date. He did not appear in court, so a magistrate issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

He was arrested again and bailed again. Ironically, while police can arrest him for the cheques, they cannot arrest him for depriving workers of their wages.

"When an employer doesn't pay workers, that's not a crime, it's a breach of contract," explains Sgt. Albert James, police media liaison. "If the employees want redress they have to sue."

"But there's more than one way to skin a cat," says Ernest Hilaire, Permanent Secretary of Youth and Sports, when asked whether Tannberg would get off scot-free because of lax, outdated labour laws. The Government wrote Jim Ryan, the stadium project manager, ordering him to pay workers any money which the project owes to Tannberg.

And they are doing this will the full knowledge that Tannberg may be able to sue them for this later.

Descon's work on the stadium has been fine, but the financial scandal is not. Hilaire says the construction schedule will not be put off, which is why the Ministry intervened.

* Terry Finisterre runs the OECS Athlete Web site. Jason Sifflet and Rupert Branford also contributed to this report.

A section of the unfinished National Cricket Stadium at Gros Islet.