Indarsingh: Retrenchment floodgates may have opened

The reported retrenchment of over 200 jobs at the University of Trinidad and Tobago has caused Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh to wonder whether the Prime Minister's promise of a moratorium on public-sector job losses had ended.

Government had agreed to a moratorium until December 31, 2017, after a meeting with labour leaders last September.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Indarsingh, a minister in the Ministry of Finance and the Economy in the last UNC administration, said, “I am calling on Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley to clarify to the labour movement and also to all workers in the public sector and state enterprises whether the moratorium on job losses that he indicated will hold until December 31, 2017 has come to an end and the floodgates have been opened to the intended loss of 287 jobs at the University of Trinidad and Tobago.”

He said Petrotrin workers were also in “limbo” as some 2,000 workers may be put on the breadline by restructuring at the state-owned oil company.