KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Some for­mer Petrotrin em­ploy­ees left the In­dus­tri­al Court in San Fer­nan­do un­hap­py on Wednes­day morn­ing, while oth­ers pick­et­ed the Min­istry of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Le­gal Af­fairs of­fice around the same time —up­set that the court had ad­journed their med­ical and re­tire­ment plan mat­ter.

Last week, for­mer Petrotrin em­ploy­ees, in­clud­ing re­tirees, at­tend­ed a meet­ing at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, where they made plans to fill the Irv­ing Street, San Fer­nan­do site, as the Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) bat­tled their for­mer em­ploy­er in the In­dus­tri­al Court.

But last Fri­day, OW­TU’s at­tor­neys in­formed the ex­ec­u­tive that the court had stayed that mat­ter un­til an ap­peal by Petrotrin, in an­oth­er case, fin­ish­es.

Singing union songs out­side the build­ing in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, the for­mer work­ers called on At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour to al­low a speedy hear­ing of the court mat­ters.

OW­TU se­nior labour re­la­tions of­fi­cer, Gre­go­ry Marchan, said the State, through Ar­mour, was play­ing games with for­mer em­ploy­ees. He said years af­ter Petrotrin ter­mi­nat­ed its work­force, they were still wait­ing to deal with the med­ical and pen­sion ben­e­fits mat­ters in court.

“We are here to ask the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al to put some kind of speed, some kind of agen­da in place to have our mat­ters heard at the In­dus­tri­al Court,” Marchan said.

He said the for­mer work­ers would con­tin­ue and ex­pand their protests if Ar­mour does not ac­cede to their de­mand.

For­mer em­ploy­ee David Har­ry, said al­though Petrotrin ter­mi­nat­ed him in 2018 along with his col­leagues, he was now at re­tire­ment age.

He said dur­ing their tenure at the com­pa­ny, they signed and con­tributed to med­ical and pen­sion plans, which they should still get.