In March several Immigration officers skipped out on work for what was believed to be a coordinated "sickout". Well now that the investigation is finally over we spoke with the CEO who said that with the provision of doctor papers, they could not prove that the immigration officers were not sick. Nevertheless they have looked at the greater issue at hand:
Tanya Santos - CEO - Ministry of Immigration
"Yes, we have, I believe, concluded that investigation, and we have discussed with the staff what were their concerns, what were their issues. We have written, we have responded to them. The investigation could not confirm, as we expected, that there was a sick out. However, the circumstances surrounding it, the timing, everything was leading to that. But I can't tell you that you're not sick when you present a doctor paper. So we have responded to them. We have responded to the attorneys who wrote on behalf of some of them. And we also met with the supervisors and the port commander to emphasize that you have our support when there are challenges, but we also expect that you will perform, that you will supervise, that you will guide and you will advise and you will mentor staff on how things are done and how things should be done. And you yourself need to be aware of the process and the procedures on how to address grievances before they become a problem."
Reporter
"So everyone has returned back to work regularly?"
Tanya Santos - CEO - Ministry of Immigration
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone is there. It was only a few, like a couple weeks, and everyone went back and we're closely monitoring the situation to ensure that there's no animosity. We try to intervene as much as we can to keep in touch with them to make sure that they continue with a good working relationship."
