TTUTA: workers frustrated as EAP still halted

Narissa Fraser

Just over a month after the Ministry of Education said it was working to resume the Employee Assistance Programme, the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association says staff remain without access and no further update has come.

Reports surfaced in early January that the programme had been discontinued for teachers. TTUTA later clarified the halt affects all staff under the Teaching Service, including social workers and guidance counsellors.

In a January 9 press release, the ministry said it was “actively addressing” the issue to “ensure employees have access to effective, efficient and sustainable psychological support,” and promised further updates once arrangements were finalised. No update has followed.

Workers, who asked not to be named, told Guardian Media they still cannot access the service.

Asked on Monday what progress the ministry has made since the release, TTUTA president Crystal Ashe replied, “Nothing. Not one thing.” He said TTUTA wrote to the ministry up to two weeks ago but received no response.

“(Workers) feeling frustrated. That’s the only word I could use because the fact is, it’s something that is there to support them in the execution of their duties,” he said. “If they’re having personal issues or sometimes even just to deal with the children, you need to have that avenue.”

He said the EAP forms part of the collective agreement. “… And you just remove it? They’re really feeling disgruntled and they’re asking about it all the time. TTUTA is inundated with calls asking when this thing is going to be reinstated.”

The ministry also said in January that funding for the EAP was allocated in the 2026 fiscal budget and rejected claims that staff were asked to pay $450 to access services. On that point, Ashe said TTUTA has receipts. He said the union will share copies with the media later this week in an official statement.

He added that TTUTA has tried to contact Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo without success. “We tried e-mailing him on multiple occasions, calling him – just up to last week Friday – and no response whatsoever.”

On Monday, the union visited his Port of Spain office to deliver a formal letter.

Tancoo told Guardian Media the letter may have arrived while he was out of office and said he would not comment on correspondence he has not seen. He said he left his office at 9:45 am to attend a Finance and General Purposes Committee meeting and later went to the airport for Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s departure to St Kitts and Nevis for the Caricom Heads of Government meeting.

“With regards to the other attempts to contact me, you were able to. A lot of the comments I have heard from TTUTA has (sic) been via what the union would have shared with the media. I think it is more practical and effective not to have deliberations via journalists. I will respond to the correspondence when I get it,” he said.

Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath asked that questions be sent via WhatsApp. They were sent at 12:39 pm, and Guardian Media is awaiting a response.