Garcia: Latest retrenched UTT workers will get help

EDUCATION Minister Anthony Garcia said steps will be taken to ensure that 199 non-academic staffers at the University of TT (UTT), who received separation letters yesterday, will be able to make a smooth transition "very calmly and very quickly into this new phase of their life."

He spoke at a news conference at the ministry's office on St Vincent Street, Port of Spain, on Friday.

A signed memo from UTT president Sarim N Al-Zubaidy, dated August 29, said the next phase of restructuring would take place yesterday and letters of separation would be given to the staff members identified. Under the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act, the receipt of the letter is a 45-day notice of their retrenchment date.

"For a worker to be separated from his or her employment, it will be traumatic," Garcia said. He added, "We will be doing our best to ensure that this transition is smooth."

Garcia recalled, "Earlier this year or late last year, we also had to separate some members of the academic staff."

He said last week he met with UTT chairman Prof Ken Julien and deputy chairman Prof Clement Imbert, who outlined the process for the retrenchment of the 199 non-academic workers. Garcia said the Labour Ministry has counselling services which these workers could access.

In the memo Al-Zubaidy said UTT also has a number of transition services for the affected workers which are free of charge.

Garcia did not know the total cost of the separation packages to be paid to these workers. But he added, "What I know is, it will save UTT $2 million every month."

Garcia said when the PNM took office in September 2015, it found several organisations were overstaffed, and UTT was one of them.

If UTT is to survive, he said, "We have to ensure that it is organised in such a way that our expenses are affordable."

Garcia said he chaired three meetings with the Oilfields Workers Trade Union about the process whereby the workers were being separated. He recalled that when the first group of UTT workers wasretrenched, "The university continued its work without any hindrances."

In an interview on CNC3, Imbert said after comparing the ratio of academic to non-academic staff, "We found there was just too many non academic staff."

Former tertiary education minister Fazal Karim said the retrenchment of these workers showed UTT was on the brink of collapse.

In a statement, Karim said the PNM continues to dismantle UTT with sustained and arbitrary faculty and staff lay-offs.

Karim described the Government's action, mere days before the start of the new academic year, as heartless and wicked. He claimed corruption abounds at UTT, with the hiring of unqualified professors and managerial positions created for PNM benefactors.

Karim called upon the dismissed workers to "fire the PNM at the polls and get TT working again."