Min­is­ter of Labour Stephen Mc Clashie says his team is look­ing in­to is­sues sur­round­ing TCL re­tirees, who protest­ed for a fourth straight day yes­ter­day. The re­tirees, along with ac­tive and ca­su­al work­ers rep­re­sent­ed by the Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union, re­turned to the gates along the South­ern Main Road at 6 am.

They called on Trinidad Ce­ment Lim­it­ed to make retroac­tive pay­ments for the Cost of Liv­ing Al­lowance and gain-shar­ing pay­ments, which they claimed the com­pa­ny owed them as far back as 2012.

Spokesman Learie Mike urged Mc Clashie, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, and Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try Paula Gopee-Scoon to get in­volved, al­leg­ing that the com­pa­ny was tak­ing ad­van­tage of work­ers and re­tirees. He ar­gued that, as elect­ed of­fi­cials, it was their du­ty to pro­tect the peo­ple.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia by phone yes­ter­day, Mc Clashie said he was aware of cer­tain ac­tiv­i­ties at the com­pa­ny and is await­ing a brief from Min­istry of Labour per­son­nel de­tail­ing the is­sues.

“So be­sides the calls for me to get in­volved, I need to un­der­stand clear­ly, not from a me­dia news­pa­per per­spec­tive, what is the ac­tu­al state of pay, how long they have been out­stand­ing, how many times the par­ties have met, their abil­i­ty to rec­on­cile dif­fer­ences, what is the is­sue with the col­lec­tive agree­ment, and the promis­es made. I need to have some more da­ta be­fore I can pro­nounce on any­thing or in­ter­vene. To do oth­er­wise would be to go in there blind­ly,” Mc Clashie said.

The min­is­ter re­mind­ed that he can in­ter­vene in trade dis­putes of na­tion­al sig­nif­i­cance or where he be­lieves there is a need to call par­ties to­geth­er for a dis­cus­sion.

The In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Act, Sec­tion 56, al­lows the min­is­ter to in­ter­vene in any dis­pute at any time be­fore a re­port is made or deemed to have been made, to ad­vise the par­ties and fa­cil­i­tate con­cil­i­a­tion to set­tle the mat­ter.

When the min­is­ter in­ter­venes in a dis­pute, he must ad­vise the par­ties to the dis­pute ex­press­ly in writ­ing, and such a dis­pute shall be deemed to have been re­port­ed. The work­ers’ and re­tirees’ protest over this is­sue has been on­go­ing for six years.

In a re­sponse to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia on Wednes­day about the protests, TCL said it re­mains com­mit­ted to on­go­ing con­sul­ta­tions in good faith with the OW­TU on these out­stand­ing mat­ters re­lat­ed to the com­pa­ny’s val­ued re­tirees.

“TCL re­mains con­fi­dent of an am­i­ca­ble and fair re­solve in every­one’s in­ter­est. Mean­while, the safe­ty of our em­ploy­ees, con­trac­tors, and cus­tomers will al­ways be of para­mount con­cern, and we ask that their rights are re­spect­ed, in­clud­ing that of safe and has­sle-free ac­cess to the plant,” TCL stat­ed. 

—KEVON FELMINE