TCI: Statement from Acting Premier Hon. Williams on Service Charge

#Providenciales, December 4, 2018 – Turks and Caicos – My people of the Turks and Caicos Islands, the current service charge debate has confirmed that stretching the truth, creating mischief and stirring up confusion have become very common practices among certain persons who are not supportive of this government.

While freedom of speech is an expression that is a constitutional right, it is unfortunate that some persons, including Hon. Josephine Connolly, have sought to abuse that privilege to take cheap potshots at this government for simply doing what is right.

As Acting Premier, I fully support the decision taken by the Deputy Premier and Minister of Labour, to postpone the implementation of the Service Charge until February 2019 in order to facilitate further consultation and a smooth transition.

This is the sensible, practical and right thing to do.

As a caring and responsible government, despite having gone through the correct procedure in the House of Assembly in getting the Service Charge Ordinance passed, we have listened to the criticisms, the concerns, and yes, the cries of the workers.

That is exactly why we are re-calibrating our approach.  Hotel workers can therefore rest assured that this two-month delay will be worth the wait!

I wish to tell the hard working people in the tourism industry that it would be wise to ignore the political drama and rhetoric that is coming from Hon. Connolly and others who are so bitter, that they cannot see the forest for the trees.

As I stated in House of Assembly a few weeks ago, this Government has had the courage to implement the service charge when other administrations in the past have only played politics with it.

There are those in politics and elsewhere who believe that some things are too good for certain people in the Turks and Caicos Islands.  We are just not that type of Government.

Too many of our own people have toiled in the tourism industry without getting their rightful share of the profits. Too many of them have retired from the hotel industry with nothing.  It is time to change that.  Despite the criticisms, this Government is committed to the Service Charge.

I dare say that if Hon. Connolly is really a people’s person and wishes to be on the right side of history and champion the cause of hotel workers, she should retract her statement and admit to her dwindling number of supporters that this Government is indeed taking the right approach to the Service Charge.

An action delayed does not mean an action denied.

Press Release: Hon. Vaden Delroy Williams