Trade union lead­ers are de­mand­ing clar­i­ty on the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­pos­al to re­quire con­vict­ed pris­on­ers sen­tenced to hard labour to par­tic­i­pate in pub­lic clean-up ex­er­cis­es, warn­ing that the ini­tia­tive rais­es ques­tions about work­ers’ rights, prison labour and the pro­tec­tion of em­ploy­ment.

Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC) gen­er­al sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette and Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers Union (BIG­WU) pres­i­dent Don De­venish said more de­tails are need­ed be­fore a full as­sess­ment can be made of how the pro­gramme would op­er­ate.

While An­nisette stressed the need to pre­serve the dig­ni­ty of pris­on­ers in­volved in the pro­gramme, De­venish warned that prison labour must not be used to re­place paid work­ers.