Prime Minister Briceno also weighed in on this. He characterised the terminated persons as phantom workers hired by the Minister to collect a salary and not much else. We had a distinctly different experience with those we met on the ground on their last day of work, but the PM said they had to be released:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"On the issue of the people that have been let go at the bus terminals, as I am told, many of those people were just put there by the previous minister. Many of them were just there as placeholders, many of them were not even working. Many of them did not even qualify for the post that they were given. They were simply given a post because they served or supported the former Minister of Transport and we need to put in people that can do the work and people also, just as important, people that are prepared to cooperate with the government. Many instances we have a lot of people within government because they pledge allegiance to the previous government or to the UDP. They do every and anything to undermine the work of the government and many of these people, we saw this happening, and so it was felt that in the interest of the bus industry and to be able to provide proper service to the public that that they had to be released."
