Caption: Idi Stuart

Summary

• TTRNA president Idi Stuart says Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo must state by Friday when the 10% wage increase will be applied to RHA workers, or unions will escalate action.
• Stuart says workers are owed increases under two streams: outstanding negotiations for RMU-represented staff and the 10% public-service increase for non-RMU employees that has not been applied across RHAs.
• Tancoo said he expects payments within the first quarter of 2026, and said he has no objection to industrial action once it is based on accurate information.

 

By Alicia Chamely

FINANCE Minister Davendranath Tancoo has been given until Friday to say when a 10% wage increase will be applied to Regional Health Authority (RHA) workers’ salaries, or the workforce will begin escalating industrial action, according to the Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA).

Speaking with AZP News on Monday, TTRNA president Idi Stuart said RHA workers were “waiting and depending” on the increase and wanted the Finance Minister to state a date for payment. He warned that if no date is given by Friday, workers will begin to “ramp up.”

Stuart said two issues were affecting wage increases. First, he said, are workers represented by a recognised majority union (RMU). He said the TTRNA holds RMU status for one RHA bargaining unit but was advised it could only negotiate from the date it received RMU status in 2025. As a result, he said, the union has been unable to negotiate for the period from 2014 to 2025.

He claimed RHAs were refusing to engage the union on those outstanding negotiations, insisting talks could only cover 2025 onward.

Second, Stuart said, are employees who are not represented by an RMU, including many who were transferred from the public service to the RHAs. He said these workers traditionally received the same increases as public servants—10% in this case—but that the increase had not been applied.

Asked what “ramping up” would involve, Stuart said workers would be advised to restrict themselves to the duties they were hired to perform. He added that the union planned demonstrations at health institutions, culminating in a mass protest in Port of Spain. He said plans included a march from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Finance on Friday, April 2.

Stuart said the action had become necessary because RHA workers were in a “no-win situation.”

Contacted for comment, Tancoo said, “I will be ratifying the decisions of previous settlements and expect payments will be within the first quarter of 2026.”

He added that he had previously publicly advised of this and said he had no objection to people expressing their views and engaging in industrial action, but preferred it be based on accurate information. “This information has been in the public domain for a while,” he said.