The days are now qui­et at the Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme (URP) re­gion­al of­fice in Point Fortin, where re­main­ing staff yes­ter­day de­scribed the mood as som­bre, af­ter watch­ing their col­leagues leave with ter­mi­na­tion let­ters on Wednes­day.

Work­ers were re­luc­tant to speak to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, fear­ing more dis­missals.

One em­ploy­ee said on­ly watch­men and a few fort­night­ly paid work­ers re­mained, as most of the month­ly-paid staff were among the es­ti­mat­ed 40 em­ploy­ees from the of­fice who re­ceived ter­mi­na­tion let­ters un­der the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment’s re­struc­tur­ing plan. Some 400 month­ly-paid work­ers across 12 re­gion­al of­fices were dis­missed in the move. URP pro­gramme man­ag­er Feeroz Khan has since said an au­dit of the pro­gramme has found some 8,000 “ghost work­ers” in the sys­tem.