Corruption and management’s disrespect to workers and the union at the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) are among the issues which the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) wants to discuss with Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales.
OWTU’s president-general Ancel Roget, accompanied by union representatives from the various T&TEC branches, hand delivered a letter at Gonzales’ Port-of-Spain office on Monday requesting an urgent meeting with him.
It was received by a messenger who indicated that the letter would be given to the minister.
This is the second letter in four months sent to the minister. Roget said since October 2020 they have been seeking a meeting with the minister.
The issues outlined in the letter were pension plan, COVID-19, deterioration of the relationship between the commission and the union, manpower audit and business plan, non-payment of bills by government agencies, reopening of the Trade School in Tobago, unnecessary expansion of contract labour and temporary workers.
In an interview with reporters after delivering the letter, Roget said Gonzales must not shirk or sidestep his responsibility as line minister.
He said, “The minister would have made certain statements last year that he received a business plan from management for which the union has not been privy to or had no discussion about, but he received this from the T&TEC management.
“The issue of the manpower audit secretly done by the commission and secretly held close to their chest, not share with the union and that is another one of the critical issues we have to discuss.
“Because both manpower audit and the business plan have serious and severe implications for the workers at all levels at T&TEC and it is our suspicion that some sort of recommendation coming from the management to reduce the manpower levels at T&TEC which is already short.”
He also complained that management has been disrespecting workers and the union and violating collective agreement provisions.
Another major issue, he said, is unnecessary expansion of contract labour.
“Wherever you see in a State enterprise a proliferation contract labour unabated unregulated look closely and you will see corruption involved there and so a high level of corruption continue to exist at T&TEC with the ease at which they violate collective agreement provisions in various articles, Clause 9 and others in collective agreement just to bring in friends and give their friends a money and put their friends on the payroll at the expense of efficiency. There are lots of work that those contract workers do that has to be redone by T&TEC, the permanent workers,” he claimed.
Contrary to management’s denial, Roget said there are over 300 vacancies for linesmen.
Calling on management to give permanent employment to all temporary workers, he noted that there are a significant number of temporary workers who have been in the system for over 10 years.
