When hundreds of unpaid Ministry of Works employees staged a public protest outside the ministry’s St. John’s Street headquarters in St. John’s on Tuesday, their demonstration quickly forced a direct response from the country’s top leader. Prime Minister Gaston Browne personally addressed the gathered workers, extending a public apology for the administrative failure that left many waiting months — and in some cases years — for owed salaries, wages and overtime pay, while issuing a binding commitment that all outstanding funds would be disbursed by the end of the workweek on Friday.
In frank remarks to the crowd, Browne acknowledged the government agency had fundamentally failed in its core responsibility to its workforce. “I apologize for the fact that Public Works dropped the ball,” the prime minister said, pushing back against widespread assumptions that the unpaid wages stemmed from a broader government cash shortage. He clarified that the full funds required to cover all outstanding compensation were already available in government accounts, but the payment had been held up by a critical administrative backlog: ministry leaders had failed to compile and submit the required payroll documentation to the national Treasury, which cannot legally issue payments without complete, processed paperwork.
Browne placed direct accountability for the delay at the feet of the ministry’s senior leadership, noting that the agency director was tasked with collecting employee rosters and finalizing the necessary paperwork to send to Treasury. He told reporters and assembled workers that he had already issued formal instructions to relevant officials to cut through red tape and resolve the backlog by the end of the week. Setting a clear internal deadline, Browne explained that if the completed documentation reaches the Treasury by no later than Thursday, all employees will see their owed funds deposited in time for Friday, a timeline that carries extra urgency due to the upcoming Carnival holiday weekend that many workers had planned to celebrate with their families.
Shop steward Mr. Peters, who spoke on behalf of the protesting employees ahead of the prime minister’s address, outlined the scope of the unpaid wage crisis that prompted the demonstration. He confirmed that some frontline workers had been owed overtime compensation dating as far back as 2014, while newer employees hired as recently as this past April had not received a single paycheck since joining the ministry. “We want our money — all our money,” Peters emphasized, summing up the unified demand of the protesting workforce.
The demonstration gained additional momentum when government truck drivers joined the gathering in solidarity with their colleagues at the Ministry of Works. The coordinated action led to noticeable traffic congestion along the busy St. John’s Street corridor outside the ministry building, amplifying public attention to the workers’ grievances. In a subsequent statement issued after the protest, the Ministry of Works acknowledged that management was already fully engaged in processing the outstanding payments. Ministry officials confirmed that work to resolve the backlog has been ongoing since internal inquiries into the issue were first raised on July 14, but the agency had not committed to a firm public payment deadline prior to the prime minister’s Tuesday announcement.