A benchmark judgement

ON February 18, the Industrial Court handed down a judgement on a case between the Senior Staff Association of T&TEC and the state enterprise. In the judgement, the collective agreement for 2012-2104 was settled with an award of 0-0-0 per cent.

It's a benchmark judgement, because while T&TEC might have been able to pay the increases under the disputed period, the court ruled that previous earnings had "little relevance now." Hence it did not award even a token increase, noting the debt position of T&TEC.

That judgement may echo through future public-service salary negotiations for 2020 and beyond, when the government spent billions to keep the economy stable.

In New Zealand in May 2021, that country's government froze salaries for three years for senior government employees (earning more than the equivalent of TT$460,000 annually) and increases for lower-salaried workers (TT$275,000 annual income equivalent) were prioritised to control spiralling public debt.

That decision displeased unions, but the strategy seemed to work, despite concerns that it's done little for the underlying economic inequalities in that country's public sector.

New Zealand's public sector employs just 15 per cent of its workforce; that number in TT runs closer to 27 per cent.

Out of TT's population of 1.4 million, 572,000 are employed, or 56 per cent of the employable population. Of those, 135,000 work in the public sector. The high percentage of Tobagonians employed by the island’s House of Assembly is particularly noteworthy.

That number grows when retirees are added.

On Friday, Trinmar employees protested over their medical plan and pension with the shuttered Petrotrin.

When the company was closed in 2018, the medical arrangements went with it and an arrangement was made with an insurance company to cover the former employees. A new insurance company has taken the portfolio, and the retirees aren't happy with the new conditions. The matter is now before the Industrial Court.

In the wake of the T&TEC judgement, that discussion may be viewed through a different lens, as the court weighs what was promised against what can be offered, and deliberates on what is "fair and just" in the circumstances.

The Government acknowledged (not for the first time) the need to modernise and rationalise the public service.

The public service is long overdue for overhaul, modernisation and re-engineering to ensure it is fit for purpose, with an emphasis on leaner staffing and a clearer mandate for providing efficient service to its customers.

Those plans must ensure fair remuneration and support for career public servants as government's role in the economy evolves.

But they must also bear in mind the large numbers of people involved and – given the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and its effect on the price of oil and hence the increased cost of transporting everything – the parlous state of government coffers.