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Collective Bargaining Representation
The union negotiates collective bargaining agreements on behalf of its members to ensure fair wages, benefits, and working conditions. Shop stewards act as liaisons between the workers and the union leadership.
Legal Representation
Members have access to legal assistance for workplace-related issues, such as unfair dismissal, discrimination, and safety violations.
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The SKNT&LU supports members in resolving workplace grievances, advocating for fair treatment and due process.
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A key focus is on promoting safer work environments and compliance with health and safety standards.
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Members can participate in events that foster community and provide networking opportunities.
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The union lobbies for policies and legislation that protect and advance workers' rights and interests.
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Efforts are made to ensure fair practices regarding layoffs, promotions, and other job changes, often prioritizing seniority and performance.
Information and Resources
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Open Door Policy
Members have direct access to union representatives for guidance and support, with non-members also encouraged to engage with the union.
Workers Representation on a National Scale
The SKNT&LU represents workers at the national level on various committees, influencing policies and regulations affecting labor and employment.
Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 15, 2020 (SKNIS): Notice has been given for an Emergency Sitting of the National Assembly to be held at the National Assembly Chambers, Government Headquarters, Basseterre, on Friday 17th April, 2020, at 10:00 am.
The National Assembly will be carried live on ZIZ Radio (96 FM) and participating radio stations. It can also be viewed live on TV Channel 5 in St. Kitts and Channel 98 in Nevis. It will also be streamed live at www.zizonline.com .
Copies of Bills can be found on the website (sknis.kn) of the St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service under the section Parliament.
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Tuesday 14th April 2020)-The two latest coronavirus patients who got the illness from local spread- one of whom is a close contact of someone in isolation and the other a relative of a suspected case- were reportedly already in quarantine when their test results came back positive, taking the Federation’s count to 14 cases now.
At the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing held on Tuesday 14th April 2020, Junior Minister of Health Senator Wendy Phipps gave the fresh local update involving 12 samples sent to The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on Monday13th April.
“These are from persons of 12 contacts who were already placed on quarantine when their contacts received the confirmation of their tests results. The results were received today –in very quick time-and of the 12 tests, 10 were negative and 2 were positive. These persons tested positive were already in quarantine and will remain in isolation as of per our protocol that has been put in place from the very beginning,” she said.
Phipps added: “These two cases reside on St.Kitts and of these two cases, one was a close contact of a positive case and was already in quarantine as stated earlier. The second one, however, is a family member of a suspected case already in quarantine and…these two positive cases represent the local spread of the virus within that household; it doesn’t say within our community…”
The Junior Health Minister said all 14 patients are doing well.
“We continue with our vigorous contact tracing and quarantine and isolation procedures in order to keep the virus under control and we continue to stress the importance of personal responsibility in our efforts to control this disease. We are thankful, however, that all of the positive cases are doing well and recovering, and that we have had no hospital admissions or deaths with regards to COVID-19.”
To date 234 persons have been tested with the 14 positive results; 10 are in St.Kitts and 4 on Nevis.
A total of 187 confirmed negatives have been received with some 33 results still pending.
Additionally, 20 persons are quarantined in a government facility while 111 are quarantined at home, 14 in isolation and 552 persons released from quarantined.
“…these two positive cases represent the local spread of the virus within that household; it doesn’t say within our community…”-Junior Minister of Health Senator Wendy Phipps
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Tuesday 14th April 2020)-Individuals accused of playing ‘cat and mouse’ with the police during curfew hours under the current state of emergency of emergency regarding COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) are being asked by Superintendent Cromwell Henry to stop it or else face the punishment.
Superintendent Cromwell Henry (SKNIS photo)
“We are still in the 24-hour curfew period which means that persons must remain in their homes. In a few communities, we find persons are playing ‘cat and mouse’ with the police. They would congregate in the streets or on the sidewalks and would run through alleys or in their yard when the police approaches, and then as soon as the police leave they come back out on the street. This is not very amusing to the police, and persons caught in these circumstances will be prosecuted, “he stated at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing held on Tuesday 14th April 2020.
“Again, we urge persons to comply with the terms of the curfew to stay in your residence including your yard and avoid being found on the street unless of course you have a very good reason; be it a medical emergency, you are an essential worker or you have special exemption from the Commissioner of Police,” he further encouraged. Superintendent Henry informed that to date, there has been sixty (60) arrests of persons who have violated the curfew and that 39 of them have been charged.
Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 11, 2020 (SKNIS): The injection of an added $16.9 million into the health sector of St. Kitts and Nevis on March 23, 2020, has significantly increased the resilience of the country to tackle cases of COVID-19.
The extra allocation, along with the $62 million budget to fund operations of the Ministry of Health in 2020, has ensured that St. Kitts and Nevis is better positioned to flatten the curve.
Dr. Cameron Wilkinson, Medical Chief of Staff of the Joseph N. France General Hospital, said that a broad-based plan was implemented to mitigate against the global pandemic. It included establishing a structure for planning and decision making led by the Chief Medical Officer, developing a written COVID-19 plan, reviewing consumable and durable medical equipment and supplies, as well as identifying strategies to manage patients, visitor access and other types of movement at medical facilities, and enhancing education and training sessions.
“We have augmented the physician staff at the emergency room by adding seven extra doctors to the usual team of nine so in total there are 16 doctors now working in the emergency room,” Dr. Wilkinson stated on Saturday’s (April 11, 2020) edition of the radio programme Inside the News on WINN FM.
Additionally, Dr. Wilkinson added that the private ward at the Joseph N. France General Hospital had been transformed to accommodate any COVID-19 patients who fall seriously ill and have to be hospitalized. The Mary Charles Hospital and Pogson Medical Centre are also in a state of readiness as are the various health centres around the island.
The medical staff on the frontlines in St. Kitts and Nevis will be reinforced by 34 specialist health professionals from Cuba who will report to work on Monday, having been released from 14-day quarantine this weekend. Also, private doctors and several retired nurses have signalled their availability to support the health system in the event of a crisis.
“We now have a total of 15 ventilators at the Joseph N. France General Hospital—one in the emergency room, four in the regular intensive care unit and 10 on the private ward where we will be hosting any persons with the COVID disease,” the medical chief of staff added, noting that several more are on order.
Supplies of infrared thermometers, personal protective equipment (PPE), and nebulizers, were increased. At the same time, two portable x-ray machines are on order that will bring the number to three. The ambulance fleet will also be enhanced with the arrival of two new ambulances slated for April 22, 2020. There are currently six ambulances. However, the new ambulances were explicitly earmarked to transport persons with suspected cases of the coronavirus.
Dr. Wilkinson encouraged persons to support emergency personal at this time and urged every resident and national to band together in this war against the coronavirus.
Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 11, 2020 (SKNIS): Persons who are qualified to receive stimulus packages as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic will be duly notified when they become available, said Chairman of the National Disaster Mitigation Council, Honourable Attorney-General, Vincent Byron.
“You would know very shortly when these will be available to be collected and how they can be collected. In some cases, they would be transferred to your bank accounts otherwise you would be given directions as to how this would be done,” said Attorney-General Byron.
The attorney-general noted that the government prides itself on ensuring that the packages be delivered in quick time.
“We understand of course that in some cases you need to be given this support soonest and we will do everything in our power to ensure that those are transferred to you so that you can continue to take care of your needs whether it be food and medicines,” he added.
He thanked the relevant bodies that are working diligently to ensure that the packages be made available for persons affected by COVID-19.
“The team that has been working to ensure that the support systems that the Honourable Prime Minister has announced to the country as part of the stimulus package, has been hard at work processing your claims, those forms that have been submitted,” he said.
The Department of Labour and the St. Christopher and Nevis Social Security Board will assist in ensuring that persons who qualify for the temporary relief measures for workers impacted by COVID-19 receive their stimulus package. The relief measures, that were announced by Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris at a press conference on Tuesday (March 24, 2020) will run for three months in the first instance.
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 10th April 2020)- Community health workers in St.Kitts-Nevis remain in coronavirus detectives mode as efforts continue to track down persons who would have been in contact with confirmed COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) patients.
An individual who was in quarantine for the past 17 days- a 21-year-old male of Indian descent- on Thursday 9th April 2020 became the 12th positive case who reportedly got the illness from one of such patients.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hazel Laws says this case is an “imported” as the individual is a “contact of an individual who would have come into the country with this virus.”
At the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) daily media briefing held on Friday 10th April, Junior Minister of Health Senator Wendy Phipps publicly told that the latest coronavirus patient “had been placed in quarantine since 29th of March when he was first named a contact of a previous case and subsequently he would have been sampled and tested and of course this was able to be done because of the aggressive contact tracing that we have put in place. So it now means that this was individual would now be in mandatory isolation which is now more stringent than the previous situation that the individual would have been in.”
She said “the community health workers are still in the process of contact tracing and monitoring individuals who would have had contact with confirmed cases.”
“…this is done in an effort to reduce the possibility of community spread or community transmission so that we take these persons out of the general population as soon as possible; put them under quarantine, and then in the event that they become a positive case at least you would have already removed them from the general population. So that is the type of aggressive approach is what has contributed to the relatively low numbers that we have had this far,” she added.
In her opening remarks, Phipps had disclosed that “just last night we would have received 23 results in total in which 22 were negative…”
To date, 29 individuals are in quarantine in government facilities with 159 persons quarantined at home while 470 individuals have been released from quarantine.
For the government’s extended period for the State of Emergency ‘Stay at home’ arrangements, St.Kitts-Nevis has entered a third portion of 24-hour lockdown from effect from 7:01PM Thursday 9th April and is expected to be enforced for seven days, ending on Thursday 16th April at 6:00AM.
Thereafter will see two back-to-back partial curfew days on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th April, whereby persons are allowed to leave their home for essential services-including buying food and medicine- between the hours of 6:00AM and 7:00PM.
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Wednesday 8th April 2020) – With a population of 53,000 where there is 11 COVID-19 patients, 334 individuals released from quarantine, 115 negative test results and 60 test results awaiting, St.Kitts-Nevis is set to enter a third 24-hour lockdown in an attempt to control the spread of the illness under the present state of emergency now scheduled to end on day 21 according to new rules by the government.
An empty scene of Church Street in Basseterre St. Kitts pictured outside the Labour Spokesman office on Monday 30th March 2020. (Spokesman Snap)
The fresh total ‘Stay at home’ restrictions are slated to come into effect from 7:01PM on Thursday 9th April and is expected to be enforced for seven days, ending on Thursday 16th April at 6:00AM.
“These new Regulations, SR&O No. 12 of 2020, will come into effect on Thursday, 9th April at 7:01PM and continue to Saturday, 18th April. Most importantly, there will be a total 24-hour curfew or lockdown from Thursday, 9th April at 7:01PM to Thursday, April 16th at 6:00AM. This means that from Thursday night this week, and continuing over the Easter weekend including Good Friday, Saturday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, until Thursday morning, no one should be away from their residence unless he or she has a special exemption as an essential worker or has a pass or permission from the Commissioner of Police,” Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris said in an address to the nation on the night of Tuesday 7th April 2020.
“Please stay at Home! Stay at Home! Stay at Home so that we can halt the spread of the virus,” he appealed.
Dr. Harris informed that on the advice of Cabinet he has asked the Governor General, Sir S.W. Tapley Seaton, to extend the State of Emergency currently in place, to Saturday, 18th April and to extend regulations made under the Emergency Powers Act.
He pointed out that the St. Kitts and Nevis Constitution provides that a declaration of emergency shall lapse at the expiration of twenty-one (21) days beginning with the date of publication of the declaration.
“Saturday 18th April will be 21 days since the State of Emergency was proclaimed on the 28th of March.”
He said further regulations would also be published in the Official Gazette and would come into force after the current regulations expire on Thursday 9th April at 7:00 PM.
The National Security Minister said there will be two partial curfews come Thursday 16th and 17th April.
“There will then be two more days, on Thursday and Friday next week, when there will be a partial curfew, or limited restrictions, to allow persons to go to supermarkets or shops in their villages, to restock their food supply. Or you may want to get medicine or other essentials. Like the partial curfews that you have experienced so far, they will be interspersed with a night curfew from 7:00PM to 6:00AM the following morning.”
On Saturday 28th March, with two confirmed COVID-19 patients, a state of emergency was declared effective 7:00PM set with a curfew between the hours of 7:00 PM and 5:00 AM for 14 days.
Next, four days of a 24-hour curfew from 7:00PM Tuesday 31st March to 6:00AM Friday 3rd April in the first instance. A curfew remained in place from 7:00PM Friday 3rd April night to 6:00AM Saturday 4th April. Then on that Saturday at 7:00PM, a full 24-hour curfew was reintroduced from Sunday 5th April to Wednesday 8th April at 6:00 AM.
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Wednesday 8th April 2020)- In light of the coronavirus (COVID-19), a window of six hours over a two-day period has been decided upon by government to allow the movement of shoppers per four community zones in St.Kitts and Nevis altogether ahead of a seven-day total lockdown scheduled for Thursday 9th April 2020 at 7:00PM.
The grouped neighbourhoods and the shopping days are Wednesday 8th April Zones One (East Side in St.Kitts) and Three (Nevis) then on Thursday 9th April for Zones Two (West Side in St.Kitts) and Four (in Nevis) from 7:00AM to 3:00PM daily.
The specific areas per zone on the islands are as follows:
Zone One-all areas east of a line through the center of Fort Street, Basseterre continuing north through Victoria Road and extending to the Roundabout on the FT Williams Highway at the RLB International Airport just west of Taylor’s Housing Development. Other parts continue east along the FT Williams Highway to the Island Main Road, the East Basseterre Constituency then in a northeasterly direction along the Island Main Road from Conaree and Needsmust and extending all the way to Saddlers and Lavington.
Zone Two- all other areas on the island of St. Kitts, from Parsons travelling via Sandy Point to Basseterre and including all other areas in the Basseterre Valley such as St. Peters, Central and West Basseterre but excluding East Basseterre.
Zone Three- the parishes of St. Pauls, St. Thomas and St. James.
Zone Four- the parishes of St. John and St. George.
Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr. Timothy in an address to the nation on the night of Tuesday 7th April said beginning Wednesday 8th April and Thursday, 9th April, the police will introduce and enforce a zoning plan for those shoppers who must leave their homes.
“On Wednesday, during the hours of 7:00am to 3:00pm, the partial curfew will be lifted for those persons in Zone One to purchase essential goods at supermarkets, pharmacies and food retail shops while exercising, of course, the strictest social distancing rules. During Wednesday, there should be no movement to Basseterre except by persons in Zone One. Zone Two will be allowed to travel on Thursday during the hours of 7:00am to 3:00pm while there will be a restriction of movement of Zone One.”
According to him:“On Wednesday, during the hours of 7:00am to 3:00pm, the partial curfew will be lifted for those persons in Zone One to purchase essential goods at supermarkets, pharmacies and food retail shops while exercising, of course, the strictest social distancing rules. During Wednesday, there should be no movement to Basseterre except by persons in Zone One. Zone Two will be allowed to travel on Thursday during the hours of 7:00am to 3:00pm while there will be a restriction of movement of Zone One.”
Dr. Harris is urging all residents of villages and settlements in the rural areas to utilise those establishments and village shops in their area and so reduce the congestion in Basseterre and Charlestown.
“Many of these village shops have the identical items that you are travelling to Basseterre and Charlestown to purchase. This travel is not essential and you are likely exposing yourself and your loved ones to the virus.”
Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 06, 2020 (SKNIS): The Government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has thrown its support behind St. Kitts and Nevis in the fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic by donating several medical supplies and offering technical assistance.
“I am very pleased to take this opportunity to announce that based on the… relations with St. Kitts and Nevis our government will donate 40, 000 masks, six (6) thermal detectors and a batch of thermometer guns. The shipment will leave Taiwan shortly and will arrive in St. Kitts and Nevis sometime next week,” said His Excellency Tom Lee, Resident Ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to St. Kitts and Nevis on Monday’s (April 06) edition of The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing. “In addition, our embassy will also provide an additional 6000 masks and other medical supplies to show our support.”
Ambassador Lee used the occasion to reassure the Government and people of St. Kitts and Nevis of his country’s continued commitment “to help and work closely with St. Kitts and Nevis in this fight against COVID-19.” He added that Taiwan “is always a good friend St. Kitts and Nevis can rely on, especially in this difficult time,” noting that “together we will succeed in the fight against this virus.”
His Excellency Tom Lee gave an update on the state of Taiwan to date, as well as the well-being of the Federation’s students who are there.
“I also want to inform our friends in St. Kitts-Nevis that all the students from St. Kitts and Nevis are safe and sound in Taiwan,” he said. “To date, Taiwan is one of the few countries where schools are still open and the people still go to their offices to work. We are containing the pandemic pretty well and that is why in terms of technical support, we are willing to share our experience with our friends in St. Kitts and Nevis…”
On Monday, March 30, 2020, a video conference on COVID-19 between Chi Mei Medical Center in Taiwan and Joseph Nathaniel France (JNF) General Hospital in St. Kitts and Nevis took place at the Ministry of Health in Basseterre. The five-party video conference was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to share COVID-19 prevention measures with Taiwan’s four Caribbean diplomatic allies, including St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Belize.
Important topics on fighting against COVID-19 were discussed in the conference, ranging from protective measures and equipment for medical personnel, emergency intubation, to infection control measures. Participants from St. Kitts and Nevis included Taiwan’s Resident Ambassador Tom Lee and Embassy staffers, Dr. Cameron Wilkinson, Medical Chief of Staff of Joseph Nathaniel France (JNF) General Hospital, and the Hospital’s medical staff.
