TT Chamber CEO: Midnight curfew lets factories operate efficiently

TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce CEO Gabriel Faria on Saturday said that while the chamber supports the Government's proposed extension of the state of emergency (SoE) to curb the covid19 virus, it would like the curfew to start at midnight to facilitate business activity, particularly by manufacturers.

Under the current SoE the nightly curfew runs from 9 pm to 5 am. The House of Representatives sits on Wednesday to debate an extension of the SoE until late November.

Faria said the chamber's information was that law-abiding citizens and compliant businesses had not felt hampered significantly under the SoE, saying most of the restrictions were actually covered under the public health regulations. "So we don't have a concern with the extension."

Faria added, "When you restrict hours of activity, you create crowds at the hours you are open. So by providing some flexibility with the opening hours of businesses, it allows employees better time to get home, it allows people who are working the opportunity to go to the supermarket to do their shopping and get home.

"It also allows our factories, which right now are working on restricted hours, to have a more efficient production. Most factories working a shift cycle, 6 am to 2 pm, and 2 pm to 10 pm."

He said under the SoE factories had to reset their operating hours which led to them not having an efficient operation.

"So by changing the curfew hours to 'midnight to 5 am', it will allow an efficient operation by our manufacturing sector."

"The other point is that the most important thing we need to do as a country is for people to get vaccinated, which will allow us to come out of the health restrictions and the SoE. That's probably the most important activity that every citizen has to participate in." He reckoned TT still has a long way to go in its vaccination efforts towards achieving herd immunity.

Sunday Newsday asked if later curfew hours would encourage more liming by people having unguarded personal interactions such as drinking alcohol together without wearing masks.

Faria said the SoE rules mandating mask-wearing and banning public drinking should be enforced, but the curfew hours could be relaxed to help businesses such as manufacturers.

Sunday Newsday asked about Government claims that the current curfew hours had not impeded manufacturers.

"When you have 5 am to 9 pm being allowed, you are not able to get two full eight-hour shifts. Manufacturers have moved away from two full eight-hour shifts to staggered shifts, so they are not able to maximise their employment and don't need as many employees and are not operating as efficiently."

He said manufacturers have acted to adjust to the tighter hours but will become more efficient with two full eight-hour shifts.

Faria hoped factories could run two shifts from 6 am to 10 pm, within an allowed period of 5 am to 12 midnight.

Asked about Diane Hadad, head of the chamber's Tobago arm, rejecting the SoE extension by saying personal restrictions were out of sync with a recent a liberalising of retail activity, Faria said the chamber's position was to support the SoE but with changed hours. He said he respected Hadad having a position, although noting her absence from a recent meeting of the chamber executive on which she sits to discuss such issues. Faria said the chamber's position was in line with the views of most responsible businesses in TT.