Jtum to AG: Amend laws to make joining union easier

MEMBERS of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) are calling on the Attorney General to bring amendments to labour laws to Parliament which would simplify the process for workers to join trade unions.

Officials from JTUM including president general of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Ancel Roget and secretary general of the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) Michael Anisette, delivered a letter to the Office of the Attorney General on Richmond Street, Port of Spain on Friday morning.

Members of other trade unions including the TT Registered Nurses Association, the Prison Officers Association and the Steelworkers Trade Union, were also present.

Speaking with reporters after delivering the letter, Roget said trade unions would have had discussions with former labour minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus since 2017 to discuss changes to the Industrial Relations Act.

He said it was disappointing to workers that proposed changes to the Act were not brought to Parliament for debate, six years after the initial meeting.

"All kinds of other pieces of legislation are rushed through the Parliament to deny citizens of their rights and put more power in the hands of Government to the disadvantage of citizens, but not one attempt has been made thus far, since 2017, to bring that legislation to Parliament.

"The ILO (International Labour Organization) Convention 87 of 1948 also speaks to the freedom of association and the right to organise. All of those things are captured in the changes we are proposing to be made to the legislation.

"In this country, under 20 per cent of the national workforce isn't unionised and not because they don't want to be unionised, it's because of the process to organise these workers."

Roget said he hopes government would treat with the matter expeditiously, noting the importance of unions to TT's economy.

He added that the trade unions have reported the government to the ILO for the government's failure to bring the legislation to Parliament.

Anisette also called on the government to make haste in finalising the amendments to the Industrial Relations Act, noting that workers were left without proper representation.

The Industrial Relations Act provides for the certification and formal recognition of majority unions for certified “bargaining units” at the workplace.

A trade union which represents more than 50 per cent of the workers in a given bargaining unit is entitled to be certified as the recognised majority trade union for that bargaining unit.

He said it was unfair for workers who consist of a significant portion of the workforce but did not meet the necessary threshold to be unionised.

"I ask the question, what happens to me as a worker, who is part of the 50 per cent and who wants a union to represent my interest?

"Why is it I must wait on 51 per cent? There's a lot of bureaucracy that is embedded in the legislation that makes it almost impossible to readily get recognition.

"Sometimes recognition takes as much as four or five years, that is a reality in Trinidad and Tobago.

"In the absence of recognition, the workers are left there without any force, or without any power or empowerment to negotiate with with the employer."