Labour Minister: I feel workers' pain

LABOUR Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus today said she empathised with people who have lost their jobs through “redundancy, insolvency or receivership."

But Baptiste-Primus said it is incumbent on her and her ministry to “maintain neutrality in the discharge of our responsibilities.”

She made these comments in reference to the Communications Workers Union reporting three disputes to her over the retrenchment of 503 workers at TSTT.

Baptiste-Primus also noted the Oilfield Workers Trade Union reported 62 trade disputes with Petrotrin over the retrenchment of workers in all six of its bargaining units.

She said the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) provide a legal mechanism for the resolution of trade disputes. Under the IRA, she explained the minister’s intervention is often sought by either party in a dispute, when no agreement is reached. As a result, Baptiste-Primus said, it is incumbent upon her not to speak prematurely on any of these issues, or she runs the risk “of being accused of displaying bias or of being accused of misbehaviour in public office.” When all genuine legislated conciliatory initiatives at arriving at a resolution prove futile, she said, her intervention becomes “the penultimate stage that precedes referral to the Industrial Court for final adjudication.”

She remained optimistic that all stakeholders will approach the conciliatory process with good faith and “let good sense prevail.”

Baptiste- Primus urged all parties to act with restraint and to “respect the spirit, intent and tenets of collective agreements and exhaust all efforts to resolve disputes in the best interest of all involved.”

She said contrary to what may be perceived in public, her record of allegiance to the philosophy of trade union representation as an integral component of democracy in TT "needs no reaffirmation."