GOVERNMENT REINTRODUCING WORK SHIFTS AND WORK FROM HOME MANDATES WHERE APPLICABLE TO CURB COVID-19 SPREAD

Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 08, 2022 (SKNIS): The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is implementing a contingency plan relating to public sector workplace rotations and shift systems, as well as an option for persons to work from home where applicable.

Minister of Labour and Co-Chair of the Disaster Mitigation Council, the Honourable Wendy Phipps, made the announcement on Friday, January 07, during the first National Emergency Operations Centre COVID-19 Briefing of 2022. The recommendation from the National COVID-19 Task Force was accepted by the Cabinet of Ministers as part of efforts to limit the community spread of the Omicron variant of the virus.

The process will be guided by a broad-based committee that includes the Chief Personnel Officer, Financial Secretary, and is supported by Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Departments.

“Citizens and residents may recall that this is not a new practice. It is something that we would have had to put in place out of need at the front end of the pandemic,” Minister Phipps stated. “The decision is being made to reintroduce this practice because in some instances there may not be a multiplicity of staff members with the same types of skill sets that enough redundancy would have been built into the civil service to ensure with satisfaction that when certain essential workers are out of commission as a result of COVID, their jobs can be easily picked up by others.”

Additional information will be communicated to the public at an appropriate time.

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