BIGWU: Banks not offering decent wages

State and private sector companies are using the country’s economic downturn as an excuse for not initiating or conducting negotiations, even as some of them make millions in profit.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday yesterday, Banking Insurance and General Workers Union’s (BIGWU) general secretary, Trevor Johnson, said that was one of the many concerns raised yesterday morning at a Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) workplace meeting hosted by BIGWU at its head office in Barataria.

“All of them are using the guise of the current state of the economy. Republic Bank just declared over $1 billion in end-of-year profits, which is the same they made before the downturn was announced. They offered the workers just six per cent when the same workers got 16 per cent three years ago when the bank made the same profit.”

He said the downturn was not affecting the banking sector yet companies claimed they could not pay a “decent” wage increase or would even start negotiations.

Johnson said BIGWU president Vincent Cabrera and JTUM president Ancel Roget also addressed concerns of state companies that were two or three negotiation periods behind. For example, he said, Cipriani College of Labour and Co-Operative Studies lecturers were still working on 2007 salaries. “And this is where the unions have submitted proposals and the various boards or management are unable to initiate or offer counter proposals.”

Issues of crime, lack of proper protection for citizens by the state, the lack of job security, the inability of present or past governments to address workers’ problems, the lack of new labour legislation, and the ignoring of the unions’ Labour Economic Alternative Plan which offered solutions and clear alternatives to deal with the economy, were discussed.

He said concern was also expressed about RBC, and the High Court’s judgement in December to cancel the certification of BIGWU by the Registration, Recognition and Certification Board as the legal representative of RBC workers.

“That was a very dangerous precedent. On some technicality the High Court ordered that the process be started over and this is after we had been waiting six years for the Recognition Board to grant that certificate.”

According to Johnson, the unions accepted there is a downturn in the economy but it was no excuse not to address issues such as legislation, crime, proper leadership, or even to negotiate a collective agreement because the how and when backpay was paid could be discussed at a later date.

“Those are serious concerns and as a result the trade union movement has determined that it has to take action, such action to be announced, but we have to take action to address some of these very critical concerns.”

They also urged workers to become more serious about branch leadership, mobilising workers, and making workers aware of labour issues. “Some workers are only interested in their own negotiations but there are much wider issues – locally, regionally, and globally – that impact us in Trinidad and Tobago. Workers have to become more conscious of that.”