Senator asks Mortgage Bank to give more paternity leave

INDEPENDENT Senator Hazel Thompson-Ahye has asked the Trinidad and Tobago Mortgage Bank (TTMB) to consider better arrangements for paternity leave for its employees.

She made this request during a meeting between TTMB officials and members of the Parliament's Public Accounts Enterprises Committee (PAEC) at the Red House, Port of Spain, on November 20.

Thompson-Ahye is a member of the PAEC.

During the meeting, TTMB CEO and managing director Robert Green told PAEC members the company has arrangements in place for employees to take leave for various reasons.

When Thompson-Ahye asked about the paternity leave TTMB grants to employees, Green said it was one or two days.

He did not give details of the periods granted for other types of leave.

Thompson-Ahye reminded TTMB officials that November 19 was International Men's Day and November 20 International Children's Day.

She said the time TTMB granted for paternity leave was "woefully inadequate."

She asked TTMB officials to make a commitment to consider increasing paternity leave, suggesting it could be "nothing less than a month."

She told them, "You don't want to make us unhappy."

Company chairman Patrick Ferreira gave PAEC members a commitment that TTMB would consider the matter seriously.

Thompson-Ahye replied, "Thank you, kind sirs."

Earlier in the meeting, Green said TTMB had a system of rotating its employees during the covid19 pandemic.

The company, he continued, does not currently have a hybrid system, where some of its employees work from home, while others are office-based.

Green said this was due in part to customers wanting to be able to interact physically with TTMB officials in an office rather than communicating over the phone.

He added that there would be consideration of introducing a hybrid system before the end of the current financial quarter.