Chester Sam­bra­no

Af­ter sev­er­al protests and pub­lic out­cry against the two per cent wage in­crease of­fer to pub­lic ser­vants, the gov­ern­ment is now seek­ing to make an im­proved of­fer to rep­re­sent­ing unions.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) yes­ter­day met with Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) Dr Daryl Din­di­al at Alexan­dra Street, Port-of-Spain and its pres­i­dent Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice (Ag) Gideon Dick­son said they got good feed­back.

“The CPO in­di­cat­ed the gov­ern­ment notes the out­right re­jec­tion of the two per cent of­fer and they are go­ing back to the draw­ing board with a view of try­ing to im­prove that of­fer,” 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”, dur­ing which 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 af­ter the meet­ing, card­ed to start at 9.30 am, was pushed back at the re­quest of the CPO.

In a brief state­ment, the 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.

Dick­son had told Guardian Me­dia on Thurs­day that his mem­bers had re­ject­ed the CPO’S two per cent of­fer for eight years (2014 to 2021) and were ask­ing for 27 per cent over six years (2014 to 2019).

He said po­lice have made it clear that they need­ed a bet­ter of­fer than the one on the ta­ble, which they la­belled as “ridicu­lous.”

It al­so caused a stir among the larg­er trade union move­ment, lead­ing to a protest 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 two per cent in­crease, there would be an ad­di­tion­al cost of $175 mil­lion in Cost Of Liv­ing Al­lowance (CO­LA), an es­ti­mat­ed $1 bil­lion in back pay and an in­crease in the state’s month­ly wage bill of $411 mil­lion.

Af­ter the po­lice meet with the CPO on Mon­day, the next group to meet with Din­di­al is the Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion.

That meet­ing will take place on Wednes­day, June 15 at 10 am.

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