Labour movement rejects offer to return to NTAC

The country’s three trade union federations - the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC), Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOS (FITUN) - say they stand firmly behind their decision to withdraw from the National Tripartite Advisory Council (NTAC).

As far as the entire labour movement is concerned, "NTAC and tripartism is dead in Trinidad and Tobago," the labour groups said in a recent statement.

In his Labour Day message on June 19, Labour Minister Stephen Mc Clashie urged labour leaders to return to the NTAC, saying they should avoid operating in silos and avoiding dialogue just because it might be hard to find a middle ground.

Mc Clashie said then, the country would only progress towards decent work by “a collective effort comprised of labour, business and government representatives, the very basis of social dialogue and tripartism.”

In April 2021, the three federations maintained the NTAC was dead. They withdrew, saying their participation in it was sacrilegious to the objectives of the labour movement.

On Friday, the labour movement said, "Tripartism is a process of social dialogue that has been institutionalised by the International Labour Organisation, ILO, as one that is constituted between the three main social partners within the economy: government, business and labour.

"The ILO described tripartism as the interaction of government, employers and workers (through their representatives) as equal and independent partners to seek solutions to issues of common concern'."

The federation accused the Prime Minister of obfuscating his responsibility to engage with social partners on any issue facing the citizens of TT in clear violation of the principles of ILO Tripartism.

"The fact remains that whilst the issue of Petrotrin’s closure was raised at NTAC by the trade union movement, the government refused to hold a discussion on the issue at NTAC.

"In addition, retrenchments and closures of state enterprises continue unabated, where thousands of workers have gone home with the recent case being TSTT and many more are under the threat to go. These include workers at WASA, TTEC, TTPOST, PTSC, MTS, BIR, Customs, SWMCOL, NP, Lake Asphalt, the port of Port of Spain and the port of Scarborough.

"The government has made no effort to put a proper pension plan in place for the thousands of daily rated workers. The government has also increased fuel costs four times. They have introduced absolutely no measures to mitigate the great economic hardship facing the citizens of TT and they are still preparing to introduce property tax on an already over-burdened population."

The statement from the labour movement was also critical of Dr Rowley for attempting to engage in wage negotiations, saying, "He has clearly shown the government hand and therefore there is nothing left for the chief personnel officer to negotiate.

"We reiterate our absolute rejection of the four per cent offer over two periods of negotiations from as far back as 2013.

"Finally, we wish to reiterate our position that our return to NTAC under the current conditions and behaviour of this government would be sacrilegious to the aims and objectives of the trade union movement.

"As such, without apology, we stand firm in our position to remove ourselves from the NTAC in the interest of all workers who continue to be brutalised on a daily basis.

"Clearly, workers have gained absolutely nothing from our participation in NTAC."

The federation said for labour to even consider returning to NTAC, there must be an immediate halt to privatisation under the guise of restructuring of state of assets; an immediate halt to any further retrenchments and to immediately hold discussions with the trade union movement; the package of labour legislation recommended by the Industrial Relations Advisory Committee (IRAC) must be brought to the parliament; an immediate and meaningful settlement of all outstanding public sector negotiations; measures to mitigate the pain and suffering of the people from the high and rising cost and an immediate halt to any new form of taxation.

"The absence of these preconditions will mean that the government is not serious about social dialogue and the trade union movement will not be part of any pappy show.

"We wish to remind all that ...on Labour Day thousands of workers gathered in Scarborough and Fyzabad voted unanimously in support of the trade union movement’s motion of no confidence in Dr Keith Rowley as prime minister and also no confidence in his administration.