The Joint Trade Union Fed­er­a­tion says they stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers Union (TI­WU) in con­demn­ing the dis­missal of Bus Dri­ver Ryan Ram­dath.  

In a press re­lease is­sued to­day, the union called the ac­tions harsh and op­pres­sive. Ram­dath who is the pres­i­dent of the TI­WU south branch of the PTSC was dis­missed for mis­con­duct af­ter he spoke to a lo­cal me­dia house re­veal­ing de­tails about the poor work­ing con­di­tions that the PTSC dri­vers had to en­dure. 

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Joint Trade Union Fed­er­a­tions:

The Joint Trade Union Fed­er­a­tions (JTUM, NATUC and FI­TUN) stand in Sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers Union (TI­WU) and raise our voic­es in strong con­dem­na­tion over the harsh and op­pres­sive dis­missal of Com­rade Ryan Ram­dath, a Bus Dri­ver and Pres­i­dent of the TI­WU South Branch of PTSC.  

On Fri­day Sep­tem­ber 9, 2022, the PTSC Cor­po­ra­tion ter­mi­nat­ed Cde. Ram­dath’s po­si­tion as a PTSC bus dri­ver on the al­leged charges that he had com­mit­ted an act of mis­con­duct af­ter he spoke to a lo­cal me­dia house re­veal­ing de­tails about the poor work­ing con­di­tions that the PTSC dri­vers had to en­dure.  

The In­dus­tri­al Court, which is deemed a spe­cial­ized court, with ex­pert knowl­edge and ex­pe­ri­ence in In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions, has doc­u­ment­ed judg­ments spec­i­fy­ing how a mat­ter is to be treat­ed when a union rep­re­sen­ta­tive is al­leged to have com­mit­ted any mis­con­duct whilst con­duct­ing his func­tions and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties as a union rep­re­sen­ta­tive.  

When a cor­po­ra­tion or any oth­er statu­to­ry body be­lieves that an em­ploy­ee has brought the cor­po­ra­tion in­to dis­re­pute, the right­ful place for that mat­ter to be re­solved is at the lev­el of the Ex­ec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of the rep­re­sen­ta­tive union. For ex­am­ple, if a man­ag­er mis­con­ducts him­self while per­form­ing his du­ties and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, the fed­er­a­tions have no au­thor­i­ty to dis­ci­pline that Man­ag­er.  

That re­spon­si­bil­i­ty falls on the man­age­ment and board of the com­pa­ny and there­fore the same prin­ci­ple ap­plies in the case of the work­er and his rep­re­sen­ta­tive union. We are as­tound­ed that af­ter all this time, the board and man­age­ment of PTSC are not aware that the ac­tions of a union rep­re­sen­ta­tive when per­form­ing his le­git­i­mate du­ties as a union rep­re­sen­ta­tive do not con­sti­tute any form of mis­con­duct what­so­ev­er.  

When man­age­ment uni­lat­er­al­ly de­ter­mines what a union rep­re­sen­ta­tive can or can­not say in his rep­re­sen­ta­tion of work­ers, we are now tread­ing on the ridicu­lous and try­ing to stul­ti­fy the right of free­dom of ex­pres­sion. 

Fur­ther, it is a fun­da­ment breech of good in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions prin­ci­ples and prac­tices and has the po­ten­tial of not re­solv­ing the is­sues, but of es­ca­lat­ing and pro­long­ing the is­sue.  

It is our ob­ser­va­tion that man­age­ment chose to dis­ci­pline the union rep­re­sen­ta­tive for ex­er­cis­ing his right to speak for and on be­half of work­ers. In fact, it is in­ter­est­ing that in or­der to cir­cum­vent the union rep­re­sen­ta­tive’s rights to ex­press his views and car­ry out his func­tion as a union rep­re­sen­ta­tive, the man­age­ment chose to charge the rep­re­sen­ta­tive as a “work­er” and not as a “trade union rep­re­sen­ta­tive.”  

The fed­er­a­tions deem that ac­tion as a sad sad day for in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions in Trinidad and To­ba­go and warns the board and man­age­ment of PTSC that we will not stand idly by and al­low this kind of be­hav­iour to be per­pe­trat­ed on the trade union move­ment by the board and man­age­ment of PTSC.  

That the board and man­age­ment chose to dis­ci­pline a trade union rep­re­sen­ta­tive, with­out re­gards to good in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions prac­tices and prin­ci­ples, will not go un­chal­lenged by the fed­er­a­tions. The in­tend­ed in­tro­duc­tion of the “fear fac­tor” in the work­place, by dis­miss­ing trade union rep­re­sen­ta­tives who are legal­ly per­form­ing their du­ties and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, in our opin­ion is a form of cor­po­rate bul­ly­ing and a de­lib­er­ate at­tempt to muz­zle trade union ac­tiv­i­ties and un­der­mine the TI­WU.  

The fed­er­a­tions there­fore call on the Board and Man­age­ment of PTSC to re­scind the let­ter of dis­missal and to meet and treat with the Ex­ec­u­tive of TI­WU on the mat­ter. Fur­ther, we warn the Board and Man­age­ment of PTSC that the act of dis­miss­ing Com­rade Ryan Ram­dath, is coun­ter­pro­duc­tive and sends the wrong sig­nal on the part of the PTSC and is not in the best in­ter­est of TI­WU and the PTSC. We trust that good sense will pre­vail and that the ser­vant/mas­ter men­tal­ly and run-away egos, will not be al­lowed to con­sume the mat­ter. We be­lieve that the mat­ter can be re­solved swift­ly and am­i­ca­bly, to the sat­is­fac­tion of both the TI­WU and PTSC. The fed­er­a­tions stand ready and will­ing to in­ter­vene in this mat­ter.