EPA questions if political ties influence Govt’s treatment of unions

KEVON FEM­INE

The Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion (EPA) is ques­tion­ing whether po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tions are in­flu­enc­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s treat­ment of trade unions, ar­gu­ing that State in­sti­tu­tions and re­sources must not be used to favour or­gan­i­sa­tions aligned with the ad­min­is­tra­tion.

In a state­ment ti­tled The Gov­ern­ment Does Not Own the State, the EPA, which is head­ed by Deryck Richard­son, said gov­ern­ments are tem­po­rary cus­to­di­ans of the coun­try’s re­sources, in­sti­tu­tions and au­thor­i­ty and are con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly ob­lig­at­ed to ex­er­cise pub­lic pow­er fair­ly and im­par­tial­ly.