Correcting errors made by Garcia

THE EDITOR: This is in respond to a few errors made by Education Minister Anthony Garcia in an article titled “UTT restructuring still on hold” in Monday’s Newsday.

The article is based on the response by the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) to a FOIA request filed by activist Devant Maharaj who was represented by attorney Jared Jagroo.

The article stated: “In response to Maharaj, UTT said their restructuring exercise was not completed and, therefore, could not give a report.” How wrong and shocking. Here UTT is admitting that it fired 59 lecturers on May 11 without a completed restructuring plan or report.

The article reports Garcia as saying that negotiations with the “representing union” are still ongoing. The truth is that there is no recognised majority trade union for UTT lecturers. Neither of the two registered unions – Sanctuary and UTTASA – commands the support of the majority of lecturers and, therefore, has not been recognised by UTT or the Ministry of Labour. The lecturers were not unionised and so became soft targets and easy picking.

Garcia is also reported as saying that “the dismissal of the lecturers was due to redundancy at the Education Faculty.” Again, this is an untruth. The “redundant” programmes and courses have been timetabled and are still being taught to new students during the new semester which began on September 3.

Additionally, we (fired lecturers) wish to inform your readers that we have filed complaints with the Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago that administrator Dr Judy Rocke has redeployed lecturers who are unqualified to deliver courses that we had taught.

The criteria to determine who was redundant would be contested in the High Court soon. We are claiming that the dismissal criteria were not fair, objective, equitable and transparent.

DR KUMAR MAHABIR

retrenched assistant, UTT