BIGWU to take government to court over URP dismissals: We not taking that

A TOTAL OF 160 trade disputes have been filed so far with the Ministry of Labour by the Banking, Insurance and General Workers’ Union (BIGWU) in response to the firing of 400 URP workers, with more disputes and legal action to come.

President of BIGWU Don Devenish confirmed to Newsday on September 13, that the union also intends to seek legal recourse by charging Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen and the ministry with an industrial relations infringement under section 25 of the Retrenchment and Severance Benefit Act.

“We are not seeking reinstatement. We are also seeking damages for the defamation and the manner of their dismissal,” said Devenish in a phone call with Newsday on September 13.

“If they are saying they are restructuring then they are supposed to follow the act. If you don’t follow it, then under section 25, that is an industrial relations offence.”

Section 18 of the act lays out the severance benefits for a worker who is retrenched. It says:

“Where any part of the employer’s retrenchment proposals is eventually put into effect, severance benefits shall be payable by the employer to the retrenched worker in accordance with this section.”

Workers who are covered by a registered collective agreement should receive a severance package which is no less favourable than what is set out in the act with respect to severance benefits or what was agreed to in the collective agreement.

Workers who are not covered by a collective agreement are also covered by the act which says if a worker has worked without a break in service for more than one year but less than five years he is entitled for two weeks’ pay at his basic rate for each completed year of service, whether he is an hourly, daily or a weekly-rated workers, one one half month’s pay at his basic rate for each completed year of service if he is monthly-paid.

If he has worked without a break in service for five years or more he is entitled for the fifth year and for each succeeding completed year of service to three weeks pay for every year of service at his basic rate if he is hourly, daily or weekly paid, or three quarters of a month’s pay at his basic rate if he is monthly paid.

On September 10, the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government terminated about 400 employees across 12 regional offices. Ameen said the terminations were part of a restructuring effort to eliminate longstanding corruption such as “ghost gangs.”

Months earlier, on June 27, about 10,500 employees of the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (Cepep) along with 360 contractors were terminated. Less than a week after that 4,608 workers and contractors at the National Reforestation and Watershed Programme were fired.

Speaking with reporters outside Parliament on September 12, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the government had to make “hard decisions now” to weed out criminal elements in the URP and Cepep programmes.

However, Devenish hit back at the government saying that they have not gotten or shared any evidence of corruption since the restructuring.

“The Prime Minister said they are weeding out criminals but they have not charged anyone with criminal charges related to this. No one has made a report to the police.”

“You make a statement like that and dismiss 400 people. Doesn’t that stigmatise these people? What will the public say? Not that these people were involved in some kind of corruption?

“They are clarifying anything they are saying ‘we like people but we don’t like criminals.’ So are they saying that these 400 people are criminals? You can’t do things like that.”

URP workers feel ‘sacrificed’

Days after the URP workers were fired, Persad-Bissessar ordered the immediate payment of salary arrears to 950 current and past staff members of the National Insurance Board (NIB) – 600 current workers and 350 retirees.

Persad-Bissessar added that the NIB staff will also benefit from immediate adjustments to their salaries.

However, Devenish said while the payment of NIB workers was a “win” for the 950 workers, it may have come at the cost of thousands of other jobs including those of the 400 URP workers.

“The workers feel as if they were sent home for the government to pay these workers,” he said. “They feel as though they were sacrificed – as if they get ‘buss up’ so they could have money to pay other people.”

“Justice cannot be selective. You cannot celebrate NIB workers by sacrificing 400 URP workers.

“The announcement about the salary adjustment and arrears for government workers is not a gift from this government. The National Insurance Board is a successful state enterprise. The money to pay these increases were already put there. The provisions were already made years ago, since 2014 when they signed the agreement with the PSA (Public Services Association). What was missing was political approval.

“So yes, I congratulate the PSA. This was a well-earned victory for their members. It came after a long and difficult struggle. But let me ask – what about the 400 URP workers? They were not given increases, they were thrown out. They were not given arrears, they were given dismissal letters. They were not prioritised; they were victimised by this government.

“If this government can find the political will to sign off on a long-outstanding arrears for the NIB then surely they can also find the moral will to correct the injustice they have done to the workers who were dismissed without charge, without a hearing or without reason.”

NATUC: Dismissal of workers frowned upon

Secretary general of the National Trade Union Centre of TT (NATUC) Michael Anisette said while he lauded the government for honouring the collective agreement with the NIB workers, the dismissal of thousands of others was “frowned upon.”

“We will condemn it, because we don’t share the view that because you are ‘restructuring’ there is a need to have this mass dismissal of workers.

“We have a rule of thumb in the trade union movement and in NATUC – when you send home one worker you are putting four people on the breadline. Most of these people have children. Most of them are single parents, single mothers. That is our reality in TT.

“Therefore everything must be done to ensure that we maintain the employment and employability of the most vulnerable groups of workers in our society. They cannot be collateral damage.

“If there is corruption, deal with it, but workers must not be made to pay the ultimate price of being sent home for corruption which they may not have any control over or were not a part of.”

On the NIB workers, Annisette said there has been a stagnation in wages for the past ten years – with port workers having their own challenges with the previous government.

“One must not forget that the past government attempted to stop the implementation of that agreement to the extent that it took the matter to the court.

“The port workers have faced a similar conduct and behaviour by the past government where, under the UNC government a 12 per cent wage increase was negotiated for the port workers for the 2014-2017 collective bargaining period. We anticipate in NATUC that the agreement will also be honoured by the government.”

He called on the government to allow unions to be involved in discussions on restructuring. He said programmes such as URP and Cepep has the potential to train the workforce of the future.

“One has to be careful in saying that because I am the government I have the right to do what I am doing without consultation and discussion. All we are saying is that the mistakes that other governments have made, do not repeat it. Get the unions and the tripartite partners involved to see what we can come up with collectively using our wisdom for the best interest of the workers.

“While I welcome what they did with NIB and I anticipate they will do the same with the port workers, at the same time within a democratic society, if something is wrong we claim the right to express a contrary view without disrespect. That view must be listened to and must be taken in the manner in which we are doing it.

“This is not about pulling down the government, this is about people – bread and butter issues. It is sending the wrong signal to those who are affected indirectly and directly.”