Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The labour move­ment is prepar­ing to take to the streets this week­end in ma­jor protests, as it calls on the Gov­ern­ment to present a more favourable wage of­fer and abol­ish the four per cent wage cap im­posed on pub­lic ser­vants.

Speak­ing at a me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at the Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers’ Union Hall in Laven­tille, the union lead­ers con­demned the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion (SRC) re­port, which rec­om­mend­ed in­creas­es in salaries for var­i­ous gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials and high-rank­ing pub­lic ser­vants.

If the rec­om­men­da­tions are im­ple­ment­ed, the Prime Min­is­ter’s salary will rise from $59,000 to $87,000 month­ly. Sim­i­lar­ly, ju­di­cial of­fi­cers and some pub­lic sec­tor roles are al­so set to ben­e­fit from pay rais­es.

The in­crease has been ac­cept­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who ac­knowl­edged the SRC’s ef­forts in as­sess­ing the ad­just­ments.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the Joint Trade Union Move­ment and the Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union, An­cel Ro­get, said, “We feel that what has been played out and an­nounced last week—the is­sue of the Prime Min­is­ter’s be­stow­ing on­to him­self huge, ob­scene in­creas­es—is tru­ly con­cern­ing. The lev­el of in­crease is par­tic­u­lar­ly ob­jec­tion­able when com­pared with what has been grant­ed to work­ers across the coun­try. It high­lights a lev­el of grave in­jus­tice.”

The union is ex­pect­ed to host a protest out­side White­hall from 9 am on Sat­ur­day.

Ro­get added, “Sat­ur­day’s ac­tiv­i­ty is not sole­ly about the Prime Min­is­ter tak­ing a sig­nif­i­cant 47.5 per cent in­crease on his salary. In­stead, it seeks to place this ac­tion in con­text, show­ing cit­i­zens that they have no choice but to stand against what we view as dic­ta­to­r­i­al and ex­ploita­tive be­hav­iour. We must con­front this ad­van­ta­geous con­duct and de­mand fair­ness in gov­er­nance and de­ci­sion-mak­ing.”

Pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers’ Trade Union, Michael An­nisette, called on the Gov­ern­ment to abol­ish the four per cent wage cap im­posed on the work­ing class.

He em­pha­sised the need for fair and mean­ing­ful ne­go­ti­a­tions to en­sure just wages for work­ers, ad­vo­cat­ing for poli­cies that sup­port wage growth and im­prove the stan­dard of liv­ing for all cit­i­zens.

“This Gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy should be scrapped. We ad­vo­cate for a shift to­wards a wage-led and job-led growth pol­i­cy. For the po­lice of­fi­cers and oth­er mem­bers who re­ceived the four per cent in­crease, we are de­mand­ing that the Gov­ern­ment re­voke this in­ad­e­quate ad­just­ment and en­gage in mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sions with the labour move­ment. This would en­sure that cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go can live de­cent­ly in the con­text of fair wages,” he said.

Pres­i­dent of the Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion Ger­ard Gor­don, whose union ac­cept­ed the four per cent af­ter the as­so­ci­a­tion was faced with a spe­cial tri­bunal at the In­dus­tri­al Court, said, “I am glad that this SRC re­port came out. I am glad the Prime Min­is­ter said whether it’s right or wrong, whether it’s fair or un­fair, he is ac­cept­ing it. You know why? Now, we have the proof and the ev­i­dence that they can do bet­ter for each and every work­er in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”