Jensen La Vende

Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) Dr Daryl Din­di­al is deny­ing claims by some trade union lead­ers that his meet­ing with some of them on Thurs­day was bad in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions prac­tice.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Din­di­al said the meet­ing, host­ed by his of­fice and mem­bers of the Min­istry of Fi­nance team, was a cus­tom­ary meet­ing held be­fore ne­go­ti­a­tions with unions be­gin.

In a me­dia re­lease on Thurs­day, the CPO’s Of­fice said an in­vi­ta­tion was sent to 11 unions and as­so­ci­a­tions, in­clud­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF), which is not rep­re­sent­ed by ei­ther a union or an as­so­ci­a­tion, for the vir­tu­al meet­ing.

Of the 11 in­vit­ed par­ties, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare (TTPSS­WA) As­so­ci­a­tion re­quest­ed an­oth­er date due to pri­or com­mit­ments, while the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) did not at­tend.

How­ev­er, Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Union pres­i­dent Er­mine De Bique-Meade yes­ter­day ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of en­gag­ing in bul­ly­ing tac­tics.

“The Gov­ern­ment is bul­ly­ing the trade unions and by the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Colm Im­bert in­di­cat­ing a five per cent in his Bud­get, he had bul­lied the trade unions and the work­ing class.”

De Bique-Meade’s was re­fer­ring to Im­bert promis­ing a five per cent wage in­crease for the pe­ri­od 2020 to 2022 dur­ing his Bud­get de­bate.

“This in­crease is es­ti­mat­ed to cost the Gov­ern­ment an ad­di­tion­al $475 mil­lion per year in re­cur­rent ex­pen­di­ture, with back­pay up to the end of 2024 es­ti­mat­ed at over $1 bil­lion. It will be dif­fi­cult to find the mon­ey to make these pay­ments, but we think it is on­ly fair and just,” Im­bert had said.

When asked if this meant that the CPO’s Of­fice will not be will­ing to ne­go­ti­ate above the fig­ure of­fered by Im­bert, Din­di­al said he does not dis­cuss ne­go­ti­a­tions in the pub­lic do­main.

Al­so chastis­ing the CPO’s an­nounce­ment was Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Ger­ard Gor­don, who said ne­go­ti­a­tions do not take place in the me­dia, par­lia­ment or pub­lic but at the ne­go­ti­at­ing ta­ble.

“I am not mind­ed to lend any cred­i­bil­i­ty or cre­dence to any state­ment made out­side of the ne­go­ti­at­ing room and not will­ing to en­ter any dis­cus­sions with any­thing that is not placed on the ne­go­ti­at­ing ta­ble,” Gor­don said.

While Din­di­al and some union heads said Thurs­day’s meet­ing was noth­ing new, Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Leroy Bap­tiste said the meet­ing was just an­oth­er in­stance of Din­di­al’s ob­jec­tive of dis­man­tling in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions be­tween the Gov­ern­ment and the work­ing class.

“He seemed to have fan­cied a new ap­proach. I deem him to be en­gag­ing in some pol­i­tics,” Bap­tiste said.

“But more than that, he seems to be more of an in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions as­sas­sin with a job to an­ni­hi­late the terms and con­di­tions of work­ers, be­cause the ap­proach to ne­go­ti­a­tions has shift­ed un­der him, where it is to the dis­ad­van­tage of the work­ing class.”

Fire Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion Keon Guy said he was mind­ful of the ap­proach to in­form unions of the state’s fi­nan­cial po­si­tion in the lead-up to dis­cus­sions, but ad­mit­ted his mem­bers risk their lives dai­ly and their re­mu­ner­a­tion should be com­men­su­rate with that fact.

Din­di­al al­so gave an up­date on ne­go­ti­a­tions be­tween the Min­istry of Fi­nance and work­ers of the Board of In­land Rev­enue and Cus­toms and Ex­cise, which will merge to form the Trinidad and To­ba­go Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty (TTRA).

Bap­tiste has been clam­our­ing for an­swers from Din­di­al and Im­bert about the terms and con­di­tions the work­ers who de­cide to switch to the TTRA will be sub­ject­ed to. He said there were ques­tions that need­ed an­swers be­fore the work­ers took the leap.

Yes­ter­day, Din­di­al said he met with Bap­tiste on the mat­ter and both par­ties are still with­out all the an­swers need­ed but are clos­er to com­ing to com­mon ground. He added that con­cerns per­tain­ing to one ma­jor is­sue are still to be ironed out.