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HEADING TO WORK: Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo speaks to reporters as he made his way into the Red House on Friday for the sitting of the House of Representatives. - Photo by Faith AyoungIF YOU are a trade union member and your union does not have the letters – PSA – in it, chances are you are in for a bleak, blue Christmas.
This after Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo said there will be no back pay for any other union before Christmas – save and except for the PSA whose members can look forward to payment of a portion of the $3.8 billion in back pay owed to them.
“As far as I’m aware, based on conversations with the CPO (Chief Personnel Officer Dr Daryl Dindial), no arrangements were made for back pay for any unions but the Public Services Association (PSA) for the December period,” Tancoo told reporters as he was making his way into the Red House on December 5, for the sitting of the House of Representatives.
Tancoo’s confirmation of no back pay for any trade union before Christmas, except the PSA, has deeply annoyed Contractors and General Workers Trade Union (CGWU) president general Ermine De Bique-Meade, who said both Tancoo and Dindial are “playing games with the lives of workers of the San Fernando City Corporation.”
“Words cannot describe how I’m feeling,” she cried, during an interview with Newsday.
De Bique-Meade told Newsday she spoke to Dindial after hearing Tancoo’s comments outside the Red House, but could not make sense of what he (Dindial) had said.
“And I want the CPO to answer why he didn’t give the corporation the directive to start auditing the workers’ files. He has to account for his actions.” De Bique-Meade said she did not believe the minister’s claim of unawareness of the agreements.
“I would have been communicating with the CPO on all occasions and the CPO informed me on all occasions that he was having dialogue with the minister.
“In his pronouncement to the unions that would have signed off their collective agreement in April, he spoke to it. He was aware of it long before the budget.”
In his October 13 budget statement, Tancoo said government would ratify the collective agreements signed in April by TTUTA, the Defence Force, and the Port of Spain and San Fernando corporations.
De Bique-Meade said Tancoo’s recent statements were very unfortunate and while happy for the unions receiving payments, her members are distressed as the reassurances they were given, have crumbled.
“My members would have made certain arrangements knowing they got an assurance that their back pay would arrive before Christmas. They made financial commitments in light of expectations of the back pay.”
De Bique-Meade appealed to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to intervene in the matter and bring relief to her members.
Where is the love?
TT Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) president Crystal Ashe also called on the prime minister’s intervention.
“She is the prime minister who says we will never have another prime minister who loves us as much as she does. That is what she said on more than one occasion. So I’m asking her kindly, to share and show some of that love with respect to members of the teaching community.”
He called for a date to be identified for the payment of back pay and the five per cent salary offer accepted by TTUTA on April 18, for the period 2020-2023.
“One would think in nine months some tangible solution would be put in place, however, nothing has…we have written to the minister seeking clarity but we have not received anything thus far. Since April to now you have put nothing in place to ensure we get all teachers their money.”
He pointed out that, meanwhile, the PSA’s agreement was finalised mere days before Tancoo’s statement on December 2.
“You went into an agreement with another union and within a week’s time, you have pronouncements on when they would be paid, while we are waiting patiently and doing everything we are supposed to do. We are trying to do things to the letter of the law...but let us be realistic.”
He called confirmation of no back pay for any union other than the PSA before Christmas, as disheartening.
“I understand they are getting for a different period and we would have received that already. At no point in time did we say we want to go back to get ten per cent, nothing like that,” Ashe said.
He said all TUTTA wants is the salary increase agreed to in April, as the protracted delay affects not only teachers but curriculum officers and school supervisors, the latter he said, still have lower salaries than the principals they have to supervise.
“It is not a gift, it is not a loan you’re giving them, this is money they worked for…and the purchasing power of that money after months and years is different now.
“Christmas is coming. Everybody have bills to pay, financial commitments and so on, that is the reality. So if they could see their way to ensure that the members of the teaching community get what is due to them in a timely manner, I would greatly appreciate that.”
However, the intervention of the prime minister being sought by leaders of TTUTA and the CGWU did not come as, during the sitting of the Lower House on December 5, Persad-Bissessar reaffirmed her promise to the PSA to settle at ten per cent and to also release a portion of the $3.8 billion in back pay to PSA workers before Christmas.
The PM made no mention of the status of other trade unions and honouring signed agreements of salary increases and back pay.
“The ten per cent settlement will be honoured. A cash advance will be paid before Christmas and the remaining arrears will be finalised through lawful negotiations by the PSA and the CPO,” Persad-Bissessar told the House on Friday evening.
She said her government stands firmly in its commitment to the agreement with the PSA.
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