OWTU, Petrotrin retirees deliver letter to PM over lost benefits

Petrotrin retirees have delivered a letter to the Prime Minister over their medical plan and pension issues

On Friday, several Petrotrin retirees accompanied by executive members of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) hand-delivered the letter to the Office of the Prime Minister at Whitehall in Port of Spain.

Speaking with the media outside, OWTU president general Ancel Roget said the retirees have all experienced great challenges and difficulties as a result of the shutting down of their medical plan and the underfunding of their pension plan. He said over 5,000 people are affected.

He said when Petrotrin was closed on November 30, 2018, it brought with it many difficulties. One of the most significant, he said, was the closure of the Petrotrin employees' medical plan.

“That medical plan was a negotiated benefit to the active workers and the retirees which guaranteed a level of quality healthcare, also giving them access to various Petrotrin medical centres. With the closing down of the company, all of that came to an abrupt end, and it is unfortunate that those who were in government at the time and continued knew very well that these retirees...would have contributed throughout their working lives to the development of our country’s economy.”

The removal of the medical plan, he said, was not just the elimination of a casual benefit, and he criticised “the disrespect to those workers and the undignified treatment to those workers who would have contributed to national development.”

He declared, “Many of those retirees would have suffered and died as a result of not being able to access proper medical attention and proper healthcare and so on, that which they were entitled to during their time of work, and that which they are also entitled to at their time of retirement. That was a negotiated term and condition of worker benefit that the government just took away from those retirees.”

He said the pension plan, when Petrotrin was closed, had a deficit of $4.6 billion, and the government was warned by the trustees to close the deficit immediately, since they were sending workers home and there would no longer be anyone to make contributions to the plan.

“The government, through the minister of finance in the Parliament and elsewhere, through the Prime Minister himself, through Minister Young and the former deceased minister of energy Franklin Khan, would have repeatedly said publicly and also told us of their commitment to fund that deficit.

"Today, that deficit has not been funded. So $4.6 billion in 2018 to now has increased tremendously.”

He said that threatens the viability of the plan so that the retired workers are not only unable to access their medical plan, but also face the collapse of their pension plan.

“That is unfair and unjust to those who would have toiled and who would have toiled tirelessly at all hours of the day and night to ensure that oil comes out from beneath the earth, oil goes to the refinery, and that that the country earns foreign exchange and benefits as a result of their toiling.”

He is calling on Dr Rowley to make good on the commitment he gave in 2018 to ensure the pension plan deficit is funded and that there is no longer a deficit so that all the plan members' pensions would be safe.

“It is the least they can do in a situation where they would have shut down the national oil company.

He also wanted the PM to restore the medical plan to its previous level "so that we can save the lives of those who today are knocking on death's door as a result of the removal of this very crucial and important benefit.”

He added that the reason why the union negotiated was not only for coverage during their working years.