By Sue-Ann Wayow
MORE than 200 employees of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) executive team will be going home soon.
The state-owned company has been mandated by Cabinet to immediately begin a transformation plan which will begin with the firing of 213 executive team members and other members of staff.
On Thursday during a press conference, Minister of Public Utilities, Marvin Gonzales said Cabinet gave the approval at its meeting that day, saying too many managers caused too much red tape.
WASA has 426 executive managers and employs almost 5,000 workers.
The new plan will be implemented with the intention of reducing WASA’s costs by 25% and increasing revenue by $1 billion.
Consultation will be done with the unions and collective bargaining units before the other members of staff are sent home.
Voluntary separation agreements will most likely be part of those discussions.
Gonzales said, “Now that the instruction is going over to the board to implement the transformation and restructuring process, the board is to return to the Ministry of Public Utilities and once I get their information and instructions and the brief from the board, the cost of this first phase of the restructuring process, that matter will be taken to the Cabinet and I will be liaising with my colleague, the Minister of Finance, to get the necessary financing.”
This is the second major state-owned company to be restructured this year following the Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) of which Gonzales is also line minister.
He said the focus is now on adopting new technology which will create opportunities for people to be reskilled.
The new structure is expected to be disseminated in five service areas with five managers will now directly report to the Chief Executive Officer.
While he could not say how many lower staff members would be axed, Gonzales said by the first quarter of the 2023 financial year, “all of these things will commence and hopefully there will be tremendous progress on that.”
“We will get all the necessary external resources to ensure that all aspects of this transformation will be rolled out over perhaps a 15 – 20-month period,” Gonzales added.
Chairman of the Board of WASA, Ravindra Nanga, who is also an attorney, said he was fully aware of what was good Industrial Relations practices.
He said, “I am not about to take WASA down onto any unnecessary litigation.”
Although in a ten-year period from 2010 to 2020, $25 billion was transferred to WASA, Trinidad and Tobago still do not have world-class water and wastewater facilities.
Gonzales said, “We have anything but that and the sad truth is that the majority of the population can attest to that.”
“In the next few months, many communities will feel the impact of stabilised supply,” he promised.
The minister said, “Transformation of this nature cannot just be the reduction of staff, there must be a vision, there must be a business plan, you must embrace technology, you have to recognise and make a determination on whether the organisation is fit for purpose, whether the job descriptions are in alignment.”
