King Street TAJ Office Briefly Closed as Workers Protest Persistent Odour and Building Conditions

A foul odour caused a temporary shutdown of the Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) office on King Street in downtown Kingston on Thursday, as workers walked off the job with conflicting reports of the source of the stink.

TAJ officials said that the information they had was that the foul smell was from the body of a dead animal but disgruntled workers were adamant that the issue was much more than that, and has been plaguing them for sometime.

TAJ Director of Communications Meris Haughton told the Jamaica Observer that the foul smell was caused by an animal that had died in the area.

She said when employees began to complain about the scent on Thursday, a decision was made to close the building until the source was found for the protection of the workers and members of the public.

The building reopened shortly before midday, with Haughton indicating the issue had been resolved and the carcass removed.

But before the reopening, angry workers charged that this was not the first time they faced unacceptable working conditions at the office.

“The building is basically condemned… This is not the first instance. We had issues where sewage water is coming up toilets on the ground floor,” one worker told the Observer.

According to the worker, the foul smell is not the only problem they have been dealing with for years.

“Cashiers are at their stations, and they have to be fanning flies, big flies. Then there is also the issue of leaks where you are on one floor in the bathroom and a leak is coming from the bathroom above… we don’t know what kind of water that is and that is dripping on people,” the worker claimed.

The smell was most concentrated just outside the building and on the ground floor, which houses the cashiers. But it was less unpleasant as our news team travelled towards the other floors.

“The fact that you are not smelling it on other floors doesn’t mean it’s not travelling through the ducts and the pipes. They are trying their best to cover it up and employees are reluctant to speak… No one wants to be deemed the one who is, in Jamaican terms, ‘the informer’,” an Observer source claimed.

On Thursday morning, several employees were seen across the street from the tax office in an effort to get some fresh air.

One employee told the Observer, “It is not just the scent, if we are going to be honest…There is just a high odour today but there some other issues in the building, that’s probably where this is coming from.”

The worker, indicating that they were not protesting, claimed that the management of TAJ “have been trying different things to kind of eliminate it. It’s just that as you pull at one thing something else comes up. We need a new home because this one is not conducive to us.”

Another employee told the Observer that the TAJ management listens to the concerns of the workers and is aware of the issue which affects the majority of employees, but the problems are yet to be satisfactorily resolved.

Addressing the claim of the worker about sewage coming up toilets, Haughton said she would investigate that matter and pointed out that the general downtown area has had an issue with sewage back flow.