Over 600 people sign-on for NiCE clean-up
Christmas clean-up group at work (file photo)
(CNS): Around six hundred people have signed up to take part in government’s island-wide Christmas clean-up, known as the National Community Enhancement Programme, or NiCE, officials have confirmed. Although unemployment numbers have dropped and the largest demographic of those out of work is people under 35, the project attracted hundreds of older people looking for the Christmas work. Government’s latest official unemployment rate among Caymanians is 6%, but many who signed up are long-term unemployed older people who are in and out of work in an increasingly insecure labour market, depending on fishing or casual jobs.
They turned out to sign on for one or two weeks of work around the Christmas break at $10 per hour for regular workers and $12 for foremen.
Kenneth Bryan, the independent opposition member for George Town South, welcomed the offer of solid paid work for those 600 people, but he pointed out that with so many people needing this type of work, it was clear that government was still not getting to grips with the jobless problem among local people.
The Christmas work began on Monday for two weeks, followed by a break for Christmas. The third week of work will begin in January.
But government has budgeted just under half a million dollars for the project and officials can only manage around 250 people for each week of the project, which means that some of those who signed up will only get work for one of the three weeks.
The work includes cleaning up the beach and road sides, and there is also work at the George Town dump.
Category: Local News
Can’t have the peak season tourists seeing the trash that lazy bums can’t be bothered to take with them.
The planet will eventually mandate the creation of a superfund paid for by the global polyethylene, polystyrene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, and petroleum resin industry as part of their corporate social responsibilities, and to comply with ISO 14001. That list of companies will include all of DART’s entities that have contributed to the global mess over the last 50 years. The Billions of McDonalds polystyrene burger clamshells served are just the tip of the iceberg. The Cayman Islands eagerly hosts one of the biggest generators of toxic waste on the globe and allows them to obscure a generation of profits diversified through a multitude of sub-companies and real estate “investments”. Good luck finding all the money when the superfund comes knocking.
Take another hit, it’ll help ease your troubled mind.
Honestly now people. Would you hire half of these persons based on just driving around to the job sites that they are being deployed just to observe?
Who not hiding their faces from their boss after asking for 2 weeks vacation is playing on the phone. who not playing on the phone is looking like they are upset at the world and the list continues.
The fact is that work needs to be done to clean up the Island and it’s a good idea, but if NDWA had to hire based on real skills as labourer it would be just as well to get Billy and his EE team to take on the project. Pay the local man the same money in a contract and give him criteria for the hire of Caymanians. This way it’s a company that can manage the workforce. Work will get done if anybody know Billy. We have other billys in other districts.
In WB we have good labour managers around. Northside should be fun to manage. NDWA could always make sure each applicant will be supplemented with Health insurance, but half would already have since as mentioned they have other real full time jobs. Pension could also be supplemented. The bottom line is this clean up done directly through government is a direct handout by each individual candidate. Similar to what took place with the massive status grants.
And is it not ironic, that most of the so called unemployed could be from that list. Again to repeat. This “married to caymanian” thing is getting out of hand. I’m sick and tired to hear politicians say that persons married to Caymanian should have priority. Some just arrived from a bush bar and set down roots and trying to run away everyone else. We have a lot of long term Caymanian that came here and went through the legal system and invested and continue to this day to take care of themselves and not have babies expecting Government to be responsible because of the “baby daddy” or “baby mama” poor excuse for not keeping a job.
It’s time for a new year and a new hand out list. You either on the list and will stop harassing business pretending to want work while making a hell of the work place, or you get your handout and STFU, about nobody wants to hire because you are Caymanian. Lazy and no ambition is as lazy gets.
Anybody know what the going rate this days for a “hookup to a caymanian”?
You can take the person from the bar or out of Jail but some will forever have that lifestyle with no intentions to change or improve.
Too long. Lost you half way through.
These people just want quick cash. They will walk around looking like they are working, some will actually work and eventually the garbage will be picked up. There are many jobs out there for $10.00 an hour, but they have to show up on time and stay all day and actually work!!! This is only for two weeks they can manage this “maybe”
None of them really seek full time true employment but just this public handout at the taxpayer expense and make the politician look good. Just call it what it is and quit the lies.
The best PR branded CIG project since..forever!
I get that this will help unemployed and underemployed persons with money for the Christmas season… but why does the government continue to put a ‘band aid’ on the real issue?! Why is it that many (if not all) of these person can’t have full time, steady employment? But yet we have how many thousands on work permits?! This NICE program is very politically driven as it isn’t really about helping these people, its about pacifying them for the time being….how do we think these people are paid to work these three weeks?! Isn’t some of the same money paid for permits used to fund such programs and be pooled into departments such as NAU? The mess continues and this unity government need to start identifying real solutions!
I think one only has to use their common sense and observe that people want to work. But a worker has to start at CI$10 per hour. Why doesn’t the Chamber of Commerce try it? Why not offer workers proper wages according to the cost of living?
Because immigration keeps encouraging importing people at $6.00 an hour.
Caymanians unna better know your place, and pick up da garbage. So sayeth your Honourable Elected Members!!! This is the best they going do for you!!!
They drop enough of it. I work at a local school, and know exactly what kind of an attitude MANY have to littering.
I would like to see a dedicated taskforce clean the plastics from Cayman’ s beaches, 52 weeks per year. Last week I met 8 older visitors from Morritts who had been working their way down the beaches to the south for over a week, because they couldn’t stand the garbage that is ruining our once-pristine sands. Our environment is the core of what we sell. Can’t we do a better and a more CONSISTENT job of taking care of our inheritance, not just at Christmas?
The majority of the beach litter is garbage dumped overboard from passing ships.
Majority comes from passing ships? No. Look at the garbage. Ships have very little of that kind of garbage, although most DO dump their garbage at sea. The majority of our trash comes from Jamaica and Haiti, who have no effective garbage disposal other than the sea….. and the wind and currents bring it right to the Caymans!
The gross Easter refugee encampments don’t help either.
Doesn’t matter where it came from someone (us) has to pick it up.
I am pretty certain most of that is from the islands that got hit by the storms this year…I have never seen EE like that before and find bits of broken plastic buckets, toothbrushes, toys…I suspect its all reached here now and we are paying for it.
I suppose the faithful will be busy in the next week or two dropping extra litter on the roadsides and beaches as a way of assisting this programme.
CIG should have used this opportunity to say that in order to qualify you also had to register with NWDA as being available for work. So same-time next year we can track and see who turned down an actual paying job during the year and they should be excluded from any further NICE work with the truly unemployable getting first priority.