By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

EMPLOYEES at the “mould and rat infested” General Post Office have been working four hour shifts for nearly a year, according to Bahamas Public Services Union President John Pinder, who said the “half days” have caused a significant back up in mail delivery.

Mr Pinder said the former Christie administration promised employees would be out of the “old, broken down” building and in a new building off Tonique Williams Darling Highway by the end of May.

However, he claimed the Free National Movement (FNM) administration stopped those plans and is considering moving the post office to the Town Centre Mall.

Last year, Mr Pinder threatened industrial action if the government did not immediately relocate employees from the “unsanitary” General Post Office on East Hill Street. At the time, he said his members were forced to work in a mould infested building with rats and termites and a leaking ceiling.

Since then, Mr Pinder said things have got progressively worse and now the air conditioning unit in the building is not working, forcing employees to work in the sweltering heat.

“For years we have been trying to get out of that building, I mean they moved everyone else out there, but the post office staff,” Mr Pinder told The Tribune.

“So now they are working four hours a day and the mail is piling up. The work day is cut in half and so that is what is going to happen. The government has stopped the plans for the Tonique Williams Darling Highway building and are revisiting the possibility of moving the post office to the Town Centre Mall; discussions are currently ongoing.

“The former government said we would have been out of the building by now but then the government changed. The air conditioner in the current building is not working and the building is full of mould. It is very hot and you cannot expect people to work in those type of conditions.”

Mr Pinder said the construction on the building off Tonique Williams Darling Highway was not complete and residents in the area complained about the “traffic that the office would bring.”

“The government reviewed and stopped the work and the quickest solution in my opinion is what is being proposed, to just move the Town Centre Mall,” Mr Pinder said.

“The new minister met with the employees and assured them that the government will do all it can in the next couple of weeks to get all the cosmetic work on the old building done. Hopefully, they will live up to their promises.”

Last May, former Labour Minister Shane Gibson said the government was acquiring the Independence Drive Shopping Centre, off Tonique Williams Darling highway, as the new location for the General Post Office.