Union wants 9% for daily paid government workers

File: Trade unions march at Labour Day celebrations in Fyzabad

Trade unions in Trinidad & Tobago are using last week's settlement at state-owned Petrotrin as a new benchmark for negotiations.

A strike at the energy company was averted on Carnival weekend after the company and the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) brokered a deal for the workers to get a nine per cent increase over the three years of the agreement, ending in 2010.

That was hailed as a breakthrough for the labour movement and the head of the OWTU was praised by his colleagues for standing firm and getting a better offer than the five per cent that the company had made.

Now the President of the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) is saying he won't accept anything less than the nine per cent for his members.

James Lambert made the statement at a news conference Monday and set a deadline of March 7 for the government to agree on the nine per cent demand. Government's Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) has offered five per cent as a final figure. 

The CPO has referred the NUGFW's wage negotiations to the Ministry of Labour, which means that the negotiation phase has passed. Still Lambert is making threats.

"If the Chief Personnel Officer doesn’t see it fit to remove the 5% wage offer that has been offered to amalgamated workers, well then, we will do what we have to do," he told reporters.

He insisted that there is no economic argument for maintaining the 5% wage offer. The Public Services Association (PSA) has accepted the five per cent offer. Port workers have also taken the same wage increase.