A number of trade unions are against any retrenchment at Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT).
Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM), Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN) and the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) have warned the government against making any added decision to place further burden on the citizenry by placing hard working citizens of this country on the breadline.
This according to release on Monday.
The unions stated that, “It’s abhorrent to understand how a government who speaks about caring for the citizens can find it so easy to retrench workers at this crucial time.”
They added, “With over 450 workers at Caribbean Airlines Limited joining the unemployment statistic the government needs to be mindful that further unemployment will not add to profitability of any company but rather add to the disparagement of a society.”
In additions, officials stated that based on previous experiences and the last occasion that the company embarked on such an exercise, approximately 500 TSTT workers became unemployed in this country.
The unions have also highlighted statements NEL’s Chairman Ingrid A Lashley with regards to the TSTT’s recent loss in profits and its planned reorganisation exercise.
They described that the potential action, if embarked on as, “Callous and a complete backward thinking measure from a government whose interest is supposed to be about protecting its citizenry. With the nation and the world facing one of its greatest challenges with the Covid-19 pandemic it is unfounded and unforgivable to add further strain to an already stressed economy.”
Officials stated that it was clear that the TSTT’s plan reorganisation exercise is to retrench a number of workers once again, so as to amass their desired profitability without any care for the human, economic and social fallout.
However, they described this action as, “Wrong and paramount to dictatorship for TSTT to have had no dialogue or consultation with the recognised majority union (RMU) to date, on any planned exercise of retrenchment.
“Additionally, the federations beseech the government and the company to pay outstanding monies owed to the workers who were retrenched in November 2018 and to the persons who have retired from 2016 to present as well as pay workers their paid retroactive payments from January 2016 to June 2020.”
