T&TEC denies OWTU's accusation of bullying workers

THE Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) has accused the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) of bullying workers into work in an unsafe environment.

The accusation has come from president general of the union which represents electricity workers, Ancel Roget, following an attempt by the commission to get an injunction to stop workers from engaging in industrial action, over the weekend.

T&TEC has denied the accusation.

At an October 28 news conference at Paramount Building, San Fernando, Roget said instead of addressing the concerns facing workers, the commission sought an injunction from the Industrial Court to enjoin them “in bullying workers” against using peaceful protest to draw attention to the issues, but failed.

The Industrial Court has set aside November 11 for a case management hearing of the matter.

At the news conference, Roget categorically denied that electricity workers had engaged or were engaging in industrial action.

The union also denied that Tobago electricity workers did not show up for duty as alleged by the management which went to court for a second time on Monday, to stop the union and workers from engaging in illegal industrial action.

“You would recall me saying to the media (at a nationwide picket by T&TEC workers on October 24), that workers came out from 6.30 am to 7 o’clock to engage in a protest action, and religiously by 7 am, workers throughout the entire T&TEC establishment world have reported for work.

“During their lunchtime, from 12 to 1 pm or whatever their designated lunchtime would have been, workers used their own time, not T&TEC’s time, not the commission’s time, not affecting the operation in any way.

“The accusation that was made against the union and the workers that the union is engaged in industrial action, is not true.

“It is not true because the operation was not affected. It is not true because those workers would have reported diligently for their respective duties on their rostered shifts. Office workers, administrative workers, everybody would have reported for work and, therefore, the operation was not affected.”

The issues affecting electricity workers include: no wage increase since 2014, manpower shortages affecting consumers, delays in filling vacancies while contract workers are engaged, health and safety issues and defective vehicles.

After the demonstration, Roget said the union was invited to an October 26 “crisis meeting" with T&TEC management. At that meeting, the union said it asked T&TEC for proof that workers failed to report for duty as it alleged. Roget said the company was unable to provide such proof.

Roget said the meeting was used to again outline the ills facing workers and management was urged to address the issues to ensure a reliable service to consumers and the health and safety of all workers.

“Instead, they ran to the Industrial Court, behind the backs of the union to get an injunction to stop their protest action. To prevent this protest action which is not industrial action. To prevent workers from highlighting the inaction of the board and management to ensure there is a safe environment, that the equipment they operate are safe and workers are out of harm's way, consistent with the law.

“They don’t want workers to come out in public, using their own time to let the public know what is happening.”

Roget vowed that as long as there are unsafe conditions existing at this utility, they cannot guarantee that workers would not use their own time to engage in peaceful picket to highlight the issues affecting them.

He again gave the undertaking that the workers would not get involved in any form of industrial action, or strike, but reiterated that under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, workers were entitled to remove themselves from unsafe working conditions,

Roget said Tobago workers, some of whom are operating defective vehicles over 30 years old, all turned up for duty on Monday morning, but there were insufficient safe vehicles for them to go out on the field.

Roget accused T&TEC of “bullying workers to do unsafe work, to operate unsafe vehicles.

He said T&TEC workers have been risking life and limb to provide a reliable source of electricity to the country and have been using their own time to highlight issues affecting their health and safety, before and after work, and during their lunch hours.

He said Tobago had a unique situation where the majority of vehicles from its fleet were not road-worthy.

He underscored the driver/operator of defective vehicles run the risk of being charged, ticketed or suffer demerit points, not the owner of the vehicles.

“T&TEC wants drivers to go out in the public domain, risk accidents and tickets by the police or licensing officers.”

Added to this, he observed, Tobago’s hilly terrain required properly working vehicles.

"Even in the best of vehicles, people are fearful for their lives, driving on those threatening, cliff-hanging curves and dangerous terrain, but T&TEC is asking workers to operate defective vehicles in such a situation where clearly, they are putting their lives at risk.”

Chairman of the T&TEC Board Romney Thomas denied the bullying claim.

"Nothing is further from the truth. The commission would never place workers in unsafe conditions and if any such conditions were found to exist they would be immediately addressed."

Roget put forward a theory about the reluctance to repair vehicles.

“Every time you ask about this, they blame the procurement legislation for not getting funds to repair. One of the reasons for not repairing vehicles has to do with contracts and retirees coming back on the job.

“They bring in contractors, with their contractors vehicles at an exorbitant cost..."

Again Thomas clarified, "Contractors have been deployed recently in Tobago due to crews not showing up for rostered duty and the commission needed to engage contractors to fill the void to ensure it could provide service to its customers without disruption."

Roget called on T&TEC to treat employees as the essential workers that they are and address the problems if they want to stop the protests.

He said he was aware that national security forces had already been alerted to their protests, but neither the workers nor the union would be intimidated because they were not engaged in anything illegal.

“If the authorities feel that is a productive way to exploit the services of the police instead of having them chase bandits and home invaders who have this country under siege. If you tell workers who are protesting peacefully to ensure they have a safe working environment and they go back home in one piece, and if you feel that is a mechanism to bully or intimidate workers, send them (the police). We are not intimidated.”