BY ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

The Department of Labour is currently still housed in both its Rosetta Street and Robinson Road locations following the fire of its new building on Old Trail Road.

Noting that The Department of Labour is staying in place until a contingency plan is brought into action, Labour Minister Pia Glover-Rolle said she doesn’t know how long of a process it would be for the new space to become worthy of occupancy again.

“So it’s very unfortunate that that fire happened moments before I called it,” Ms Glover-Rolle said. “We were supposed to move into the space, and I say we as the Department of Labour, because it is a multi government complex where other ministries and departments have also accessed space. At this time, the Department of Labour is still in our Rosetta Street location and Robinson Road, which were to be consolidated. We are operating in that space at this time until we figure out a contingency plan. We cannot say at this time if the contingency will need to move back into the new space, because we do not know how long it will take to bring that space back to occupancy standards. So at this time, we are still working on a plan.”

Director of Labour Howard Thompson told Tribune Business in a recent interview back in April that the department had two weeks to leave their Rosetta Street and Robinson Road locations as they’d already given up their lease and other tenants were prepared to move in.

“In addition, I need to be out of this building in the next two weeks,” Mr Thompson said. “We’ve found a temporary location to move to, but it’s very, very disturbing, very discouraging. I had a meeting with the senior management team today. We’re in crisis mode, and are going to transition as best we can and serve the public. We’re looking at one or two locations. One is a bit more turnkey than the other.

“By Friday, the minister and the permanent secretary will advise me which location to go to. It [the fire] was a setback. We were right there. I’m just happy we did not move in prior to the fire. That would have cost the Department of Labour all its files and computer records. We’re digitising everything now.

“It’s caused a lot of disruption because we’ve already given up our leases and are supposed to move out of the Robinson Road and Rosetta Street offices. There are other lease holders now. It’s a matter of us moving out of these locations because other people can start moving in.”

With the department currently occupying the same locations, Ms Glover-Rolle said this has resulted in a shared space with another agency,

“The lease is paid by the government,” Ms Glover-Rolle said. “[The] Department of Labour was to move out and another government agency was moving in. So there was no cessation of lease but a turnover of agencies by the original date that was agreed.

“Unfortunately, there can be no movement until a contingency is arranged. A portion of the other agency had already started to move in resulting in what is now a shared space at Rosetta Street that is not ideal for both operations. However, the agencies are making it work at this time.”