OWTU: Industrial court, unions essential

OWTU education and research officer Ozzi Warwick.
OWTU education and research officer Ozzi Warwick.

BOTH the Industrial Court and the trade union movement have been deemed essential components of society as they provide mechanisms to “contain the anger, frustration and pain of ordinary working people.”

In a media release, Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) chief education and research officer Ozzi Warwick expressed concern with recent statements attributed to TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce head Ronald Hinds who blamed the actions of trade unions for the shutting down of steel company Arcelor Mittal and the decision by energy giant BP to relocate construction of its Angelin platform to the US.

“It would be a grave mistake to believe that with the absence of trade unions or even the Industrial Court that workers will simply conform and accept injustice and exploitation. There is a real risk that the country will be plunged into a period of unprecedented instability.

“Make no mistake that the existence of trade unions and the Industrial Court as institutions acts as a mechanism to contain the anger, frustration and pain of ordinary working people, particularly in this period as they are the ones carrying the full burden of adjustment,” Warwick said in the release. Warwick said the chamber president’s statement on October 11 seemed to suggest that the rulings of the Industrial Court and actions of trade unions led to the closing down of the Arcelor Mittal Steel Plant, the departure of the BP Rig and the current shutting down of Petrotrin.

“I wish to state this is categorically inaccurate and a total misrepresentation of the facts.”

He said the court had ruled in favour of the company regarding the salary increase for Petrotrin workers and cited Industrial Court Ruling – Trade Dispute Nos. 115, 116, 117, 118, 119 and 120 of 2014 (s) which had agreed that the company’s offer of a one percent increase for the final year of the three year bargaining period is “fair and just in the given circumstances.”

On OWTU president general Ancel Roget’s infamous “take your rig and go” statement, Warwick said BP had cited bureaucracy as one of the reasons for their decision and had taken the decision to move its Angelin platform before Roget’s statement.

Warwick said Hinds statement that the Industrial Court, together with the unions were responsible for Arcelor Mittal’s shutdown is “completely baseless” and cited the Privy Council judgement No. 0087 of 2013 which upheld the Court of Appeal Judgement which was in favour of the Industrial Court ruling that “contract workers in that case should be treated with the same benefits as permanent workers and that terms in the collective agreement should be applied to contract workers.”

“The judgment of the Privy Council should be carefully read as the Privy Council accepted the submissions of the union as it relates to the applicability of collective agreements to contract workers.

“Therefore this unwarranted, unjustified, incorrect and contemptuous attack on this institution which is a court of higher records and part of the judiciary, is very anti-democratic and will only perpetuate industrial instability.”

He said the “continued accusations levelled against the court have no basis and are in fact counterproductive in this time of economic challenges.” An industrial relations dispute between the OWTU and Petrotrin is presently before the Industrial Court.

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