Petrotrin/OWTU settle wage disputes

Workers at state-owned refinery Petrotrin in at least six bargaining units will only get six percent wage increase for a three year period.

The overall wage increase of six percent was signed off on by the Industrial Court earlier this week.

Five percent was agreed to by the company for the first two years and an addition one percent for the final year of the three years period for the collective agreements.

The collective agreements for the six units were before the Industrial Court as part of separate, but consolidated, disputes between the company and its workers’ union, the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU).

In a ruling on Tuesday, President of the Industrial Court Deborah Thomas-Felix said the court held that the overall six percent increase in each of the six disputes was “fair and just.”

She noted that Petrotrin had informed the court that it could only pay one percent for the final year of the agreements, having previously agreed to a five percent increase for the first two years.

“We find, on the totality of the evidence, that the company’s offer of a one percent wage/salary increase for the final year is fair and just in the given circumstances.

“We are aware that, having regard to the corporation’s pleading of financial inability, any such wage increase must have the effect, unless the present trend of revenue insufficiency can be reversed, or enlarging the annual operation deficit. But this, in our view cannot be a conclusive argument against awarding an increase that is fair in all the circumstances and justly deserved….”

Also ordered in the judgment was the payment of Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) for the entire three year periods of each trade dispute to be calculated in accordance with the TT Index of Retail Prices (January 2003=100); therefore the COLA will be 23 cents for every one (1) complete point rise in the Index of Retail Prices.