Annisette warns about SRC report: | Local news

The government can give itself a pay rise, but must first take action to ensure civil servants’ demands are met, says Seafarers and Waterfront Workers’ Union (SWWTU) president Michael Annisette.

In a telephone interview with the Express yesterday, Annisette said that if the government moves to accept and implement the Salaries Review Commission (SRC) report without addressing the large wealth gap in this country, there will be continued objections .

“We will show that the government has no conscience; we will show that they speak with forked tongues; We will show that the government cannot be trusted because it says one thing and does something for itself,” he said.

“It will show that we have a division within society, where a certain group can get a 48% increase and a 24% increase in arrears. “If you talk to the people on the ground, they are completely upset, and how that translates remains to be seen,” he added.

Annisette reiterated that it is the union’s position that employees should be paid, including politicians.

“We have no problem with the government being paid correctly. “I believe in the Singaporean model: if you pay workers peanuts, you get monkeys as workers, and that is why in Singapore all ministries get competitive rates – not like in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.

“How do we justify a CEO getting $100,000 a month plus benefits, when the average salary for civil servants is $6,000? We are talking about social divisions that are frightening, with the wage gap and the wealth gap widening in T&T based on the policies of this government, and it is something we must stand up against,” he added.

Principled attitude

The transformation of the economy requires a principled economic attitude towards wages and growth, Annisette said.

“We cannot have what is happening in Trinidad and Tobago, where we see many people falling off the social ladder as a result of government policies,” he said.

He said the union disagrees with the government’s determination that increases for government employees should be 4% over six years.

The government has refused to implement a legitimate agreement between the port and the SWWTU, as well as the agreement that had been court-registered with the National Insurance Board (NIB) for nine percent employees, he said.

“That clearly shows that the government’s policy is an IMF (International Monetary Fund) policy that they have implemented indirectly to depress workers’ wages,” he said.

Annisette stated that workers have no respite when faced with higher costs of living and the imposition of taxes.

He noted that businessmen complain about what is happening at the port;

“If the middle and working classes do not have the purchasing power and ability to pay for goods and services as a result of the government’s policies to depress wages, the economy in its current form is on an economic cliff.”

He said it is necessary to balance the balance of the economy.

“Within the private sector, during the said period, there was an average of eight to nine percentage points over the three-year collective bargaining period, and that is a fact that the government cannot deny,” he said.

He asked why there is an insistence on not paying 12% to port workers, adding that the port management would have spoken to the government in good faith.

“I can speak of several agreements that we would have negotiated in good faith without going to a CPO (Chief Personnel Officer), as he claims, to the minister or the inter-ministerial committee for directions, and they cannot deny it,” said he. said.

He stated that he can name other state-owned enterprises that are not going to the CPO.

“We fall under that umbrella in the sense that the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago pays their own wages. They don’t have to go to the government. So it is not a matter of not being able to pay. That doesn’t happen. The NIB negotiated 12%, the board approved it and the finance minister went to court to stop it even though it was a registered agreement, thus distorting due process and legal document,” he said.

Annisette continued: “You have to wonder where we are going with this kind of conduct and conduct from the Secretary of the Treasury. Can he deny that the document was registered with the Industrial Court, an independent body, and that he interfered with it?’

He also objected to the claim that there were talks with the Union.

“If you want to talk about the advice from lawyers that the minister claims to have received and that he has spoken to the Union, then that is disinformation and misleading. It is a shame that a minister makes this public and claims that he has had discussions with the Union, which is not a fact. So let me make that point so that the public understands that in Trinidad and Tobago there is interference with due process by the government as an employer, and that is what is frightening. We are seeing a creeping dictatorship that is worrying, where the process of democracy and the right to free collective bargaining, in accordance with Convention 98, is not recognized and honored by this government,” he said.

Annisette concludes: “As I speak to you, the Port Authority senior manager has not received a raise since 2012. I ask you the question: is that fair to anyone?”