I write to express a frustration shared by many but spoken of too quietly: for more than 10 years, I have served this country as a temporary public servant. For more than a decade, I have reported to work faithfully, carried out my duties with professionalism, and contributed meaningfully to the functioning of the public service—yet I remain classified as “temporary”.
This status is not due to a lack of commitment, qualifications, or experience. Like many others, I have pursued the necessary training and possess years of institutional knowledge and practical skills that cannot be taught in a classroom. Still, my wages remain low, my job security fragile, and my future uncertain. Temporary employment was never intended to last a decade, nor was it meant to become a quiet form of neglect.
What makes this situation particularly disheartening is that the work performed by temporary employees is essential. We support ministries, departments, and national services, often on the front lines, doing the same work as permanent staff, shouldering the same responsibilities, and upholding the same standards — yet without the same benefits, stability, or recognition.
This is not merely a personal grievance. It is a systemic issue that affects many hardworking individuals who contributed years — sometimes decades — of service under the previous administration with little transparency, progress, or clear pathways to permanency. Silence, delays, and unmet promises became the norm.
With the change in administration comes renewed hope, but also important and necessary questions:
What plans does the new government have to address the plight of long-serving temporary public servants?
What steps will be taken to regularise those who already meet the criteria for permanent employment?
Will experience and dedication finally be valued alongside qualifications?
Will there be a fair, transparent, and time-bound pathway to permanency?
Public servants are not disposable. We are parents, caregivers, community members, and contributors to national development. Job security is not a luxury — it is just. Fair wages are not a privilege — they are a right.
This letter is written not only out of frustration, but out of hope — hope that the new administration will acknowledge this long-standing injustice and take meaningful action to correct it. We are not asking for Favors. We are asking for fairness, recognition, and the opportunity to be treated as the permanent contributors we have already proven ourselves to be.
The time for silence has passed. The time for action is now.
A Concerned Public Servant
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I hope the new administration is sufficiently focused and organized to not overlook this tremendous opportunity to capitalize on the goodwill that is evident in this submission. This is, in effect, a constituency all by itself.
Absolutely rediculous situation that should have been resolved years ago. I can only hope that this new Government puts in place a plan to resolve the currant situation as quickly as possible and makes it impossible for, in the future, temporary employment to carry on any further than just one year.
It is quite a coincident that the concerned public servant is only now pointing out that system was unfair. When they were part of the system that created the monster, everything was fine. Now they are asking the new administration to favor them, as the old administration did, is that really fair to this new administration? In every country where there is a change of government, it is inevititable that there will be changes, it comes with the territory.
Will there be a fair, transparent, and time-bound pathway to permanency?
I find the questions interesting. Under the ULP administration were these questions asked? Was your temporary for 19 years questioned or is it only now you have found a voice? I am glad that you are able to make this aware to the new administration. One month 8 days into the new government but you sit silently for 10 years, without benefits etc. and said nothing. Well done the NDP has given your voice back.