You have been warned

THE Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) has warned the public not to blame it when action is taken against the TT Electricity Commission (T&TEC) management, the board and chairman, who the union says are refusing to deal with issues affecting more than 200 workers.

OWTU president Ancel Roget yesterday called on T&TEC’s management to immediately make permanent, all temporary workers currently working in permanent positions and desist from the practice of crew supervisors being used also as crew drivers.

“When action is taken against T&TEC, do not blame us, because we have been warning the commission, the public, the line ministry and the line minister about this. The Government is aware of this and if they do not desist from this unlawful practice and guarantee workers not just their job security but a level of productivity that can flow from allowing competent and trained workers to perform tasks for which they are paid, we are going to take action without apology,” Roget said.

A small group of OWTU members staged a silent protest in front of T&TEC’s headquarters on Frederick Street, Port of Spain. Roget said from information the union had received, T&TEC’s plan was to reduce the workforce.

“We are preparing an aggressive mobilisation drive to really defeat and combat this attempt to reduce the workforce. There are some 200 temporary workers currently at T&TEC who have been in temporary positions for more than three to four years in permanent positions. And not for hell the commission would see it fit to make those workers permanent positions, but instead to reduce the number of workers in T&TEC,” Roget said.

He said if T&TEC were to reduce the workforce the impact would be very detrimental to the lives of workers, and very dangerous to the public. Roget asked how the commission expected the supervisor of a crew to be the driver at the same time and be effective and safe. He said the union took action against the commission by getting a court order to stop it using supervisors as drivers in May.