Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC) has wel­comed Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to ad­dress out­stand­ing pay­ments and back­pay for pub­lic sec­tor work­ers, but says the coun­try needs a broad­er eco­nom­ic strat­e­gy that goes be­yond fis­cal mea­sures.

NATUC Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Michael An­nisette said while the an­nounce­ment of pay­ments in 2027 is a pos­i­tive step for work­ers who have been wait­ing for years, Gov­ern­ment must al­so out­line a clear plan for eco­nom­ic trans­for­ma­tion, sus­tain­able jobs and prepar­ing cit­i­zens for the fu­ture.

“While the bud­get would have ad­dressed pay­ments for pub­lic sec­tor work­ers and back­pay in 2027, that is laud­able,” An­nisette said.

He said work­ers across the pub­lic sec­tor, in­clud­ing dai­ly-rat­ed work­ers, port work­ers and em­ploy­ees with­in gov­ern­ment in­sti­tu­tions and qua­si-gov­ern­ment bod­ies, have been fac­ing fi­nan­cial chal­lenges be­cause of the ab­sence of wage in­creas­es.

“Work­ers have been labour­ing and there are eco­nom­ic dif­fi­cul­ties be­cause to not get wage in­creas­es for that pe­ri­od of time cre­ates all kinds of fi­nan­cial and eco­nom­ic haz­ards for the work­ers,” he said.

An­nisette said NATUC wel­comes the com­mit­ment but be­lieves the na­tion­al dis­cus­sion must ex­tend be­yond out­stand­ing pay­ments.

“We wel­come those ini­tia­tives, but I think we have to go be­yond that. We have to find a strate­gic way, a strate­gic ap­proach and process­es in terms of how we de­vel­op our econ­o­my,” he said.

He ar­gued that a na­tion­al bud­get should not on­ly fo­cus on rev­enue and ex­pen­di­ture but should al­so com­mu­ni­cate Gov­ern­ment’s long-term di­rec­tion.

“We can­not just see a bud­get in the con­text of fis­cal mea­sures on­ly. We have to speak on a wider ba­sis. We have to know what the vi­sion is and what is the plan,” An­nisette said.

He high­light­ed the need for Trinidad and To­ba­go to strength­en its in­fra­struc­ture and de­vel­op its ca­pac­i­ty as a re­gion­al trans­porta­tion hub.

“One of the ar­eas that I al­ways talk about and will con­tin­ue to talk about is the ques­tion of mak­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go a true trans­porta­tion hub, both air and sea,” he said.

“The ques­tion of de­vel­op­ing our in­fra­struc­ture and our port fa­cil­i­ties and op­er­a­tional in­fra­struc­ture be­comes crit­i­cal and im­por­tant.”

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) has re­ject­ed Gov­ern­ment’s time­line for set­tling out­stand­ing pay­ments, say­ing mem­bers re­main frus­trat­ed by re­peat­ed de­lays.

TTUTA pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe said teach­ers were dis­ap­point­ed fol­low­ing the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance’s pre­sen­ta­tion.

“We are not in agree­ment with that. We are to­tal­ly dis­pleased. We are dis­heart­ened,” Ashe said.

“Our mem­ber­ship right now, they’re hurt­ing be­cause they need their back­pay and now we are hear­ing that the goal­posts has been shift­ed yet an­oth­er time,” he said.

Ashe said the time­line moved from Ju­ly to Jan­u­ary, then the end of the first quar­ter of 2026, and now fis­cal year 2027.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA), cau­tious­ly wel­comed Gov­ern­ment’s in­di­ca­tion that salary in­creas­es for nurs­es and mid­wives could be ad­dressed in the 2027 bud­get.

“It is the first time that one of the of­fi­cials we have been call­ing on — the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, Min­is­ter of Health and the Prime Min­is­ter — has come out and pub­licly in­di­cat­ed the process and how and when, more im­por­tant­ly, salary in­creas­es would be af­ford­ed to­wards nurs­ing and mid­wifery per­son­nel,” TTNNA pres­i­dent Idi Stu­art said.

How­ev­er, he said the as­so­ci­a­tion re­mains con­cerned about whether com­mit­ments will be de­liv­ered.

“If promis­es that have been made to teach­ers still have not re­ceived their just due, then what does it mean for the Nurs­ing As­so­ci­a­tion and in­deed all re­gion­al health au­thor­i­ty work­ers?” Stu­art ques­tioned.

The TTNNA will take the is­sue be­fore mem­bers at a Spe­cial Gen­er­al Meet­ing this Sat­ur­day, where a de­ci­sion will be made on whether to ease or in­ten­si­fy planned ac­tion.