Labour minister remains impartial despite links to labour movement

Errol McLeod's Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) has been critical of government's five per cent cap on wage increases. However the labour minister is remaining neutral in the matter.

The Public Services Association (PSA) waged a lengthy struggle to demand more money but eventually settled for the five per cent and other fringe benefits. Since then the PSA PResident Watson Duke has become a pariah in the labour movement and some PSA members have demanded his resignation.

The majority of the other unions in the country are adamant that they will not accept five per cent and have said they will shut down the country to dramatise their point.

The unions have been putting pressure on McLeod, a former colleague who headed the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) for 21 years, saying he is no longer standing up for the rights of workers.

However McLeod made it clear Tuesday that his ability to help is restricted to the guidelines outlined in the Industrial Relations Acts.

Speaking at the launch of the American Chamber of Commerce's (AmCham) 15th Annual Health and Safety and Environment (HSSE) Conference in Port of Spain, McLeod said "If matters are properly reported to the Minister of Labour, then in his capacity as Minister of Labour, and in accordance with the Industrial Relations Acts, he must deal with them as judiciously as he can." 

McLeod said, as Minister of Labour, he is the chief conciliator in disputes between the labour movement and its employer and legally "does not have the responsibility to berate the demand of the union nor to promote the offers of the employer".

He added, "Now even with Government as employer I still hold the position of Minister of Labour and if it becomes necessary at all for me to intervene, then I must seem to be intervening without prejudice to any particular side in the dispute and this is why I will not berate five per cent nor will I promote whatever is coming from the other side".

He added, "Mine is a totally impartial position...I feel that I continue to serve the interest of all involved in the processes and that Trinidad and Tobago is one place and it is our key interest...

"I expect that reasonable people will come together and reason things out and do what is best in the interest of all of us in Trinidad and Tobago," he added.