Senior Reporter-Investigative
jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt
While Finance Minister Colm Imbert is boasting of the Government’s ability to pay close to a billion dollars in backpay ahead of Christmas Day today, hundreds of police and fire officers have not received theirs and may not get it until next year.
Taking to the X platform yesterday, Imbert wrote, “Against all odds, we have so far paid approximately $900 million in backpay to public officers who accepted our offer, and we continue. It was a whole of government effort. All accounting staff in education, fire, prisons and police service and the many others who helped must be congratulated.”
During his 2024 Budget presentation in October, Imbert promised a jolly Christmas for those who signed off on the CPO’s four per cent salary hike offer, noting they would receive their monies before Christmas.
In his $54.012 billion budget, Imbert promised to allocate $1 billion to settling public servants’ wage matters by Christmas this year. Additionally, unions who agreed to the State’s four per cent offer also received a $4000 tax-exempt lump sum payment for retirees, which he said would cost the State an additional $19 million.
Soon afterwards, the then Ministry of Education permanent secretary wrote to Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, informing her payments for teachers could not be processed before May 2024. That official was later transferred from the ministry.
In reassuring the teachers in October, Imbert told Parliament that the Government “will do what has to be done” to ensure payments are made.
The unions to benefit included the T&T Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), Fire Service, Amalgamated Workers’ Union (AWU), T&T Police Social and Welfare Association (TTPSWA), Prison Officers’ Association (POA) and the T&T Defence Force.
Speaking with Guardian Media yesterday, TTUTA second vice president Marsha Huggins said most of the teachers received their backpay. However, she said there are about 10 per cent of teachers who are expected to receive it before the new year.
Huggins said it was no fault of the accounting department, noting the challenges stemmed from calculating the changes in grades for some teachers who were promoted, those on extended sick leave and other issues. She said she knew staff at the ministry were working “round d clock” to facilitate the payments before Christmas.
Fire Service Association president Keone Guy also said despite the hard work of the accounting department, some 289 regular fire officers of a catchment of 2,300 received their salaries without backpay, owing to some individual hiccups in processing theirs. Guy added that those officers will be paid their backpay in January.
Guy said it is hoped that some 300 auxiliary officers will also be paid both their December salaries and backpay by the end of the year.
Describing them as the “backbone” of the Fire Service, Guy said the auxiliary officers were placed on the “back burner” as the accounts department, on instructions, did what was necessary to ensure that the regular fire officers received their monies on time.
“We are hoping that they are paid by the 27 or 28. They will be paid after Christmas, which may be a good thing as they will not suffer from buyer’s remorse. But I don’t think that the decision should have been made for them.”
He explained that the auxiliary officers are on a different payment system, as regular fire officers are on the Government’s IBIS automatic system while the auxiliary officers are still manually computed.
Amalgamated Workers’ Union (AMU) president Michael Prentice said his membership received their backpay long before the October reading of the budget. This, he said, was a benefit of being one of the first unions to accept the offer back in August. The only hiccup he and his union of 1,400 members had about 17 workers falling outside of the payment period and receiving their monies after the October 2 reading of the budget.
Police Service Social and Welfare Association president, ASP Gideon Dickson, told Guardian Media most of the 7,000-plus police officers and 70 per cent of Special Reserve Police officers received their payments, while the bulk of the regular police officers were awaiting payments.
“About 30 per cent of regular police officers received their backpay. We have a team working on it and it should be ready with the January salary. Our processes would have failed us, and we will be addressing that going forward,” Dickson said.
Dickson blamed the delay on “new people at the helm.” Asked to clarify, he said since the last period of backpay paid in 2015, there have been new people, both civilians and police officers in charge of the accounting, which he suspected led to the delays. He added that the various units and the fact that police have over 26 allowances contributed to the delay as well.