Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 02/Dec 06:16

Labour minister says unions must live with their choices

SAYING trade unions have to live with the consequences of agreements they broker at the bargaining table, Labour Minister Leory Baptiste said the Public Services Association (PSA) knew it was taking a gamble on the UNC – and it has paid off. He made this comment while defending Minister in the Ministry of Public Utilities Clyde Elder, who has been catching flak, in some quarters, for saying trade unions who accepted a four per cent wage increase from the then PNM government, cannot now expect the same ten per cent increase the PSA got, as promised by the UNC during the general election campaign. Last week, the PSA shook hands on a ten per cent wage increase after long and delegate negotiations at the office of the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO). “I think you must be aware that the PSA would have been one of the unions that stood their ground (on wage negotiations) and dealt with severe consequences,” Baptiste said on Monday. “The members remain, up to now in 2025, with their 2013 salaries. They negotiated, they made a decision and the decision had consequences. I could even go as far to say that the PSA would have spent a lot of money behind a decision going to court and all those type of things.” He said unions that accepted the four per cent wage hike would also have to face the consequences of their decision. “When you make decisions there are consequences one way or the next. There were those who accepted it (the four per cent wage increase) and therefore their members have more updated salaries. “That is what negotiations are about – you gamble, you take risk, you make a decision and the consequences follow naturally.” Asked whether the government and by extension the CPO had set a precedent by offering the PSA its ten per cent wage increase, Baptiste said the government has no legal obligation to renegotiate with other unions. “That will be entirely up to the Minister of Finance,” he said. “There is no legal basis for doing so. If you have the benchmark that pre-supposes that you have an outstanding negotiation and you are now coming to the table, if you have a signed agreement, you have a signed agreement.” The TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) president Crystal Ashe congratulated the PSA on being rewarded with the wage hike but he knocked Elder’s statements. “We are a non-political association,” Ashe said. “We don’t align ourselves politically with any party, but Mr Elder would have alluded to the fact that because the PSA took on such a great risk aligning themselves with a particular political party, it seems they are reaping the benefits of that now. “That should not be the basis of which any union or any association should be rewarded. At the end of the day we are all seeking the best for citizens of TT. It should be in the interest of any government to ensure that citizens are well taken care of. He described Elder’s statements as “unfortunate,” especially given his background in trade unionism. “TTUTA doesn’t subscribe to that at all. We are a non-partisan association and we will always represent our members to the best of our ability. Ashe said TTUTA is still waiting for clarification on when its negotiated five per cent wage increase for the period October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2023 would be implemented. “To date we have no definitive direction in terms of the Ministry of Education, or the CPO. None of them have given us directions as to, one when the new salary will be paid to teachers and two, when the back-pay for that period would be paid.” In a Newsday report last week from a TTUTA media release, the association said it sent a letter to the Ministry of Education on the matter, but the ministry responded, saying it was waiting on formal instructions from the Ministry of Finance. Ashe told Newsday on December 1 that TTUTA had also written to the Minister of Finance for clarity, but have not received a response. Asked whether TTUTA will lobby for a higher wage increase in future negotiations on collective bargaining agreements, Ashe said: “We will cross that bridge when we reach it.” The post Labour minister says unions must live with their choices appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.