Turks and Caicos Islands
GOVERNMENT

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks & Caicos Islands; Thursday, October 16, 2008 – As a result of a reported labour dispute on West Caicos between General Contractor "Ashtrom" and sixty-three (63) Chinese workers, Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands, Hon Dr Michael Misick and other Government Ministers held a meeting on Thursday in order to mediate the dispute.

At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that "Ashtrom" will pay the workers within the next twenty four (24) hours in order to bring an immediate end to the dispute.

The incident occurred between the sub-contractor and its sixty-three (63) employees due to the non-payment of wages, despite the sub-contractor being already paid by General Contractor "Ashtrom."

In the meeting, representatives of Ashtrom informed the Premier and Government Ministers that all monies were indeed paid to the sub-contractors, however the monies were not forwarded on to the workers.  This then resulted in the Chinese employees demanding their pay before leaving the island.

Contrary to media reports, Deputy Police Commissioner Hubert Hughes has confirmed that there have been no incidents of violence and police officers are on the island.  Deputy Commissioner Hughes has also confirmed that the island is not under siege and media reports of a hostage situation are false.

The Government wishes to emphasize that the Turks and Caicos Islands has modern labour laws based on International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards, that protect the rights of both employers and employees.

It regrets that the Molasses Reef Project has come to a halt as a result of the major financial fallout in the US economy that has resulted in Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.  Lehman was the primary source of funding for this project and is now in liquidation.

The Government understands from the developers of Molasses Reef that there is considerable interest expressed in their project and they are confident that once legal matters are resolved with Lehman's bankruptcy, an alternate source of financing will be found to enable the project to be completed.

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