Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

In what ap­peared like a farewell speech yes­ter­day, Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan thanked the Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion (EPA) and Se­nior Man­age­ment As­so­ci­a­tion (SMA) of Port-of-Spain for their sup­port dur­ing his tenure.

Speak­ing at the sign­ing of a Mem­o­ran­dum of Agree­ment (MoA) with the unions, Sinanan re­called be­ing the longest-serv­ing min­is­ter in the min­istry, not­ing that on Mon­day, elec­tion day, he will mark nine years in charge of the min­istry.

The sign­ing sought to set out the agreed time­line for the dis­burse­ment of ar­rears to em­ploy­ees rep­re­sent­ed by the unions, who ben­e­fit­ed from the ne­go­ti­at­ed salary in­creas­es.

The unions agreed to wage in­creas­es in Jan­u­ary and March. In Jan­u­ary, the Port Au­thor­i­ty signed a col­lec­tive agree­ment with the EPA for a four per cent wage in­crease for the six-year pe­ri­od 2014-2020 and a nine-year agree­ment with the SMA for 16 per cent be­tween 2011-2019.

Sinanan al­so ad­dressed plans to pri­va­tise the port, as­sur­ing the unions that no work­er will be fired dur­ing the trans­for­ma­tion. He stressed that the ex­pan­sion plans will cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for more work­ers.

The MoA comes as the Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) Com­man­der Dr Daryl Din­di­al signed off on an­oth­er set of ne­go­ti­a­tions, the fourth in a week.

The lat­est sign­ing took place yes­ter­day be­tween the CPO and the T&T De­fence Force for a five per cent wage in­crease for the pe­ri­od 2020-2022.

A me­dia re­lease from the CPO’s of­fice said the TTDF al­so ac­cept­ed an in­crease in the X-fac­tor by an ad­di­tion­al two per cent, along with ad­just­ments to meals, un­ac­com­mo­dat­ed rent, uni­form al­lowances, and the in­tro­duc­tion of a laun­dry al­lowance for cer­e­mo­ni­al du­ties at the res­i­dences of the Pres­i­dent and Prime Min­is­ter.

The re­lease said the TTDF will re­ceive ad­di­tion­al pro­vi­sions, in­clud­ing the reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion of tax ex­emp­tions for the pur­chase of mo­tor ve­hi­cles for cer­tain of­fice hold­ers and the in­tro­duc­tion of an in­cen­tive al­lowance for per­son­nel sup­port­ing the TTDF Com­mis­sions Board.

On Tues­day, the Amal­ga­mat­ed Work­ers’ Union agreed to a five per cent of­fer for the pe­ri­od 2020 to 2022.

Two days lat­er the Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union (CGW­TU) agreed to a four per cent of­fer for the pe­ri­ods 2014 to 2016 and 2017 to 2019.

On April 18 the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion agreed to a five per cent of­fer for the years 2020 to 2023.