For­mer Pub­lic Util­i­ties min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les has crit­i­cised a Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) ini­tia­tive to have em­ploy­ees wear com­mem­o­ra­tive yel­low po­lo shirts on Fri­day (Au­gust 28), claim­ing the move in­ter­feres with the tra­di­tion of staff wear­ing the na­tion­al colours ahead of In­de­pen­dence Day on Au­gust 31.

Gon­za­les made the com­ments in a Face­book post yes­ter­day, say­ing he was “re­li­ably in­formed” that T&TEC em­ploy­ees were be­ing in­struct­ed to wear yel­low po­lo shirts as part of an Em­ploy­ee Ap­pre­ci­a­tion Day planned for Fri­day.

He ques­tioned the de­ci­sion to hold the ac­tiv­i­ty just days be­fore Trinidad and To­ba­go’s 64th In­de­pen­dence an­niver­sary on Au­gust 31.

“Tra­di­tion­al­ly, em­ploy­ees of the com­mis­sion, at this time, proud­ly wear their na­tion­al colours to ob­serve our na­tion’s in­de­pen­dence,” Gon­za­les said.

He ac­cused T&TEC’s man­age­ment of be­ing po­lit­i­cal­ly af­fil­i­at­ed and ap­point­ed, and called on the com­mis­sion to al­low em­ploy­ees to wear the na­tion­al colours.

“The em­ploy­ees are not stu­pid. Al­low the em­ploy­ees of the com­mis­sion to proud­ly wear their na­tion­al colours,” he said.

Gon­za­les al­so ac­cused the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) of us­ing na­tion­al hol­i­days for po­lit­i­cal pur­pos­es.

“The UNC con­tin­ues to play po­lit­i­cal games with our na­tion­al hol­i­days and it’s time to stop this non­sense!!!” he said.

How­ev­er, an in­ter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tion from T&TEC shows that the planned event is be­ing pre­sent­ed by man­age­ment as part of the com­mis­sion’s 80th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions and to recog­nise its em­ploy­ees.

In a mes­sage dat­ed Au­gust 10, gen­er­al man­ag­er Ian Ram­rat­tan told staff he was pleased to present each em­ploy­ee with a com­mem­o­ra­tive T&TEC po­lo shirt ahead of Em­ploy­ee Ap­pre­ci­a­tion Day on Au­gust 28.

“Fur­ther de­tails about this spe­cial event will be shared in the com­ing weeks,” Ram­rat­tan wrote.

He said the oc­ca­sion was ded­i­cat­ed to recog­nis­ing and cel­e­brat­ing the com­mit­ment, hard work and con­tri­bu­tions of em­ploy­ees who had helped shape the com­mis­sion’s lega­cy over the past 80 years.

Ac­cord­ing to the mes­sage, the event will pro­vide an op­por­tu­ni­ty for em­ploy­ees to come to­geth­er, re­flect on their achieve­ments and reaf­firm their com­mit­ment to the com­mis­sion’s fu­ture.

Ram­rat­tan en­cour­aged em­ploy­ees to wear their com­mem­o­ra­tive po­lo shirts on the day “as we proud­ly cel­e­brate our shared jour­ney, ac­com­plish­ments, and con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to ex­cel­lence.”

The com­mu­ni­ca­tion did not state that em­ploy­ees are pro­hib­it­ed from wear­ing na­tion­al colours or in­di­cate that the po­lo shirt is be­ing in­tro­duced as a re­place­ment for In­de­pen­dence Day-themed cloth­ing.

The com­mem­o­ra­tive de­sign fea­tures the com­mis­sion’s yel­low and black cor­po­rate brand­ing and an “80 years” an­niver­sary lo­go.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath for com­ment on Gon­za­les’ claims and the de­ci­sion by T&TEC to have em­ploy­ees wear the com­mem­o­ra­tive shirts. How­ev­er, there was no re­sponse up to press time.

T&TEC had al­so not pub­licly re­spond­ed to Gon­za­les’ com­ments up to press time.