Black Friday shutdown coming to T&T

More than 2,000 workers facing the grim prospect of losing their jobs in the Customs and Excise Division and Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) took a decision Tuesday to spend the day Friday away from their workplaces to "reflect and pray".

Workers in some of these department are classified as "essential services" employees and are prohibited from taking any form of industrial action. But what they propose to do on Friday the 13th is neither a strike nor a shutdown.

They took the decision at a meeting called by their union, the Public Services Association (PSA), to discuss the government's plan to shut down the two department, fire everybody and and set up a new revenue agency.

The government is calling it voluntary separation and is putting aside about $350 million to pay workers severance and benefits according to their entitlement. But there is nothing voluntary about it; it's a matter of take it or leave, which he government has done when it closed state agencies like Caroni (1975) Limited, BWIA and the National Broadcasting Corporation.

What has angered the PSA and workers is that the new agency would be doing the same work that the existing agencies handle but government is saying no one is guaranteed employment in in Trinidad and Tobago revenue Agency (TTRA).

PSA President Jennifer Baptiste-Primus has said that's a betrayal because during negotiations with government on the proposed change there were three options - the separation plan, a guarantee of reemployment in the new agency and transfers to other parts of the civil service.

But the minister of finance said last week there are no alternative options since the new agency would have to determine for itself who it wants to hire. And she said that agency would not fall under the civil service jurisdiction.

The workers were adamant at Tuesday's meeting that they will fight to keep their jobs and insisted that they would take whatever measures are necessary to force the government to reverse its decision.

They agreed with the PSA's contention that government treated the workers with scant courtesy.

One woman received loud cheers from her colleagues for suggesting a complete shutdown of the Customs and Excise Division. "Nothing comes in, nothing goes out," she said.

Baptiste-Primus told workers Prime Minister Patrick Manning deceived the population, when he told the nation "no one in the public sector was going to lose their jobs". She also lambasted Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira who said the union had always known that separation was an option.

"Yes, VSEP was one of the options but it was not the only option. There was also the option of transferring them over to the Authority and a third to allow them the option of remaining in the public sector. The Government agreed to grant them all three options," she said.

Baptiste-Primus demanded an explanation from Nunez-Tesheira about why she reneged on her initial position.