OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas has again called on the Gov­ern­ment to keep its promise of a 10 per cent salary in­crease in next month’s na­tion­al bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion.

“Ten per cent is not four per cent, and we ex­pect it to be de­liv­ered,” Thomas said yes­ter­day, af­ter the PSA for­mal­ly signed the set­tle­ment agree­ment with the man­age­ment of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NIB), end­ing a long-run­ning le­gal bat­tle over the nine per cent salary in­crease and ar­rears owed to near­ly 950 cur­rent and for­mer em­ploy­ees for the 2014–2016 pe­ri­od.

Thomas al­so stressed that the PSA re­mains com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing work­ers’ rights are pro­tect­ed in the wake of re­cent dis­missals of Com­mu­ni­ty-Based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP) and Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme (URP) work­ers.

The PSA sup­port­ed the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress dur­ing it Gen­er­al Elec­tion cam­paign and was as­sured that salary ne­go­ti­a­tions would com­mence at ten per cent.

Ad­dress­ing this yes­ter­day, Thomas said, “Ten per cent is an of­fer that is to­tal­ly dif­fer­ent to four per cent, and we have all the faith that this Gov­ern­ment, just as they have been ho­n­our­ing their promis­es thus far, that they will ho­n­our the promise of the 10 per cent, and we are look­ing for­ward to this year’s bud­get in Oc­to­ber.

“This Gov­ern­ment has shown it is will­ing to ho­n­our its promis­es. But our mem­bers have wait­ed long enough, and we are look­ing for­ward to see­ing the full 10 per cent in­crease for 2014–2016 and 2017–2019 re­flect­ed in the bud­get.”

Thomas con­firmed that with the set­tle­ment signed yes­ter­day, the PSA will now with­draw its case from the In­dus­tri­al Court.

“This was a reg­is­tered col­lec­tive agree­ment that was ig­nored by the last ad­min­is­tra­tion. We had no choice but to take le­gal ac­tion to pro­tect our mem­bers. Now that the UNC Gov­ern­ment has ho­n­oured it, we are sat­is­fied to dis­con­tin­ue the mat­ter,” she not­ed

Thomas al­so ad­dressed wider con­cerns about job loss­es at state en­ti­ties, say­ing unions are not silent but fo­cused on se­cur­ing last­ing em­ploy­ment.

“We want sus­tain­able, per­ma­nent jobs that al­low work­ers to plan their lives. If re­struc­tur­ing achieves that, the PSA will sup­port it. Unions can­not stay silent when work­ers are be­ing dis­card­ed. We will con­tin­ue to ad­vo­cate for job se­cu­ri­ty and de­cent work for all pub­lic of­fi­cers and con­tract work­ers”, the PSA pres­i­dent said.

How­ev­er, she stressed that the PSA is com­mit­ted to mon­i­tor­ing re­struc­tur­ing ef­forts across state agen­cies, warn­ing that work­ers’ rights must be pro­tect­ed.

“This set­tle­ment is a step for­ward, but the strug­gle is not over. Work­ers are ex­pect­ing this ad­min­is­tra­tion to fin­ish what it start­ed — not just with salaries, but with job pro­tec­tion,” she said.

The PSA will now reg­is­ter the terms of the agree­ment in court, for­mal­ly bring­ing the dis­pute to an end.