KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

The Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) has agreed not to take in­dus­tri­al ac­tion against the T&T Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC), fol­low­ing an al­leged sick out in To­ba­go last week.

This af­ter T&TEC, rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­neys Vanes­sa Gopaul and Tamilee Bud­hu, filed an ex parte ap­pli­ca­tion for an in­junc­tive re­lief against the OW­TU un­der the In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Act yes­ter­day.

The ap­pli­ca­tion was brought be­fore In­dus­tri­al Court pres­i­dent Heather Seale, vice pres­i­dent Her­bert Sover­all and Jus­tice Michelle Ann Austin.

How­ev­er, the OW­TU, through its first vice pres­i­dent Sati Ga­jad­har-In­niss and at­tor­ney An­tho­ny Bul­lock, turned up at the court to re­spond to the ap­pli­ca­tion. The OW­TU gave an un­der­tak­ing that whether by its pres­i­dent, ex­ec­u­tive or mem­bers who are T&TEC em­ploy­ees, or its bar­gain­ing units, they will not com­mence, con­tin­ue or take any in­dus­tri­al ac­tion what­so­ev­er, or any oth­er form of un­law­ful with­hold­ing of labour.

The OW­TU said it will im­me­di­ate­ly in­struct mem­bers not to ini­ti­ate or par­take in any in­dus­tri­al ac­tion and re­port to their ros­tered du­ty as re­quired, per the terms of their em­ploy­ment con­tracts and gen­er­al law. As a re­sult of the un­der­tak­ing, the court ad­journed the ap­pli­ca­tion for in­junc­tive re­lief to No­vem­ber 11 for a case man­age­ment con­fer­ence.

The court fur­ther or­dered the en­dorse­ment of a pe­nal clause that if the OW­TU, its of­fi­cers, or any mem­ber dis­obeys the or­der, they would be li­able to the ex­e­cu­tion process to com­pel them to obey.

Just last Fri­day, T&TEC had is­sued a me­dia re­lease ex­press­ing its grow­ing con­cern af­ter the OW­TU warned of “dark days” ahead for the na­tion. It came a day af­ter the OW­TU led T&TEC work­ers in an ear­ly morn­ing protest at fa­cil­i­ties in Port-of-Spain, San Fer­nan­do, Point Lisas, Ari­ma and To­ba­go.

OW­TU pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get said work­ers would not strike but would use the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Act to refuse work, as he cit­ed un­safe work­ing con­di­tions. He said the work­ers al­so had not re­ceived a salary in­crease since 2014 and that hu­man re­source short­ages af­fect­ed the util­i­ty’s op­er­a­tions. By 7 am, work­ers were back to their jobs. How­ev­er, sources said on­ly two of 10 emer­gency re­sponse crews turned up for work in To­ba­go the fol­low­ing day. There were fur­ther re­ports that tele­com work­ers did not re­port for du­ty on the is­land on Fri­day and Sat­ur­day morn­ing.

How­ev­er, the OW­TU, in a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, said T&TEC failed to get an in­junc­tion. The union main­tained that the se­ries of protest ac­tions tak­en were work­ers ex­er­cis­ing their right to peace­ful­ly pick­et the em­ploy­er out­side work­ing hours, be­fore work, dur­ing their lunchtime and af­ter work. It said the protest did not ham­per T&TEC op­er­a­tions and amount to the un­law­ful with­draw­al of any labour.

“On every oc­ca­sion, the union pub­licly ad­vised the work­ers to re­turn to work and not to dis­rupt the com­mis­sion’s op­er­a­tions. The union gave an un­der­tak­ing to the court that it will con­tin­ue to ad­vise the work­ers as it has done in the past not to ini­ti­ate or par­take in any in­dus­tri­al ac­tion and to re­port for their ros­tered du­ty as re­quired,” the OW­TU stat­ed.

Based on this un­der­tak­ing, the OW­TU said T&TEC failed to ob­tain an in­junc­tion, and the court in­stead set dates for case man­age­ment.