The head of the Central Labor Council has sharply criticized top Schneider administration officials for requesting lump-sum payments of their unused annual leave as they step down.
Luis "Tito" Morales said that while this practice is allowed by law, outgoing officials "shouldn't be bleeding the carcass" and exacerbating the islands' fiscal crisis, according to Wednesday's Daily News.
Morales named Gov. Roy L. Schneider, Dean Wallace, Maria Wallace, Amos Carty, Osbert Potter, Alain Lockhart-Mullah, Karen Blyden, Maureen Bryan, Dean Luke, Nellon Bowry, Joseph Aubain and Juan Centeno as officials who have requested pay for their unused annual leave.
Carty told the Daily News he was unaware of who will get lump-sum payments, and Centeno said he couldn't comment on individual cases. But both stressed that there is nothing illegal or improper about the requests.
Alternatively, government employees could extend their official resignation dates and continue to collect bi-weekly paychecks. Or they could credit their unused leave toward their retirement plan, Centeno said.
Morales said the request for costly lump-sum leave payments "is appalling in light of the fact that the Public Remployees Relations Board has been unable to hear cases on the island of St. Thomas because there has been no allotment for travel and other expenses for the past two quarters."
