A for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter and the CEO of an em­ploy­ee as­sis­tance pro­gramme says the re­cent dis­missal of the Com­mu­ni­ty-Based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme work­ers could see a rise in men­tal health is­sues.

Neil Parsan­lal, who leads the Petrotrin Em­ploy­ee As­sis­tance Pro­gramme Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (PEAP­SL) said ma­jor job loss­es have the po­ten­tial to lead to stress and trau­ma as ex­pe­ri­enced in the past with re­trenched Petrotrin em­ploy­ees.

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Parsan­lal said that un­der the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion, re­trenched Petrotrin work­ers were pro­vid­ed with up to six months of EAP ser­vices.