It seems that the gov­ern­ment is now seek­ing to make an im­proved of­fer to pub­lic sec­tor work­ers af­ter its 2 per cent wage in­crease was re­ject­ed by all the rep­re­sent­ing unions.

Yes­ter­day the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) met with Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) Daryl Din­di­al at Alexan­dra Street, Port of Spain. 

"The CPO in­di­cat­ed the gov­ern­ment notes the out­right re­jec­tion of the 2 per cent of­fer and they are go­ing back to the draw­ing board with a view of try­ing to im­prove that of­fer," TTPSS­WA pres­i­dent As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice (Ag) Gideon Dick­son said.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia fol­low­ing the meet­ing Dick­son said his as­so­ci­a­tion will meet again on Mon­day at 9:30 am to get a re­vised of­fer. He de­scribed the meet­ing with the CPO as "pro­fes­sion­al­ly con­duct­ed," where both sides ex­pressed their po­si­tions.

"At the end of the day, some con­sid­er­a­tion must be giv­en to what we would have had to un­der­go over that pe­ri­od." Pri­or to the meet­ing as they stood side by side Dick­son told the CPO his as­so­ci­a­tion was en­ter­ing the talks in good faith.

Both par­ties met in the lob­by of the CPO's of­fice short­ly be­fore 2:30 PM. That meet­ing was orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled to start at 9:30 AM but was pushed back at the re­quest of the CPO.

In a brief state­ment, TTPSS­WA pres­i­dent said his mem­ber­ship must get the best re­sult at the end of the process."On be­half of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion, we are pleased to be here at this time to en­gage in ne­go­ti­a­tions. We just want the mem­ber­ship to know that we are en­ter­ing in good faith and the in­ten­tion is to move the process along to bring the best ben­e­fit to all our of­fi­cers, those who have served be­fore and those who are serv­ing present­ly.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia on Thurs­day, Dick­son said his mem­bers have re­ject­ed the CPO'S 2 per cent of­fer for 8 years (2014 to 2021) and are ask­ing for 27 per cent over 6 years (2014 to 2019).

He said po­lice have made it clear that they need a bet­ter of­fer than the one on the ta­ble, which they have la­belled as "ridicu­lous." It al­so caused a stir among the larg­er trade union move­ment, so much so that a protest was held on May 27.

The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC) led the march which start­ed at Memo­r­i­al Park in Port-of-Spain and end­ed at the Min­istry of Fi­nance Tow­ers on In­de­pen­dence Square.
When the of­fer was made and unions called for a shut­down of the coun­try, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley asked them not to over­re­act.

How­ev­er, he in­di­cat­ed at that time that with the pro­posed 2 per cent in­crease, there would be an ad­di­tion­al cost of $175 mil­lion in CO­LA (Cost of liv­ing al­lowance), an es­ti­mat­ed $1bil­lion in back pay and an in­crease in the state's month­ly wage bill of $411 mil­lion.

Af­ter the po­lice speak with the CPO on Mon­day, the next group to meet with the Din­di­al is the Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion. That meet­ing will take place on Wednes­day, June 15 at 10 AM. 

Re­porter: Chester Sam­bra­no