Gov't of T&T might hold hands on wages: report

The government of Trinidad and Tobago has reportedly told trade unions it is not in a position right now to deal with wages.

Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran has met with Michael Annisette, the president of NATUC, to discuss Natuc’s proposals for the upcoming budget. NATUC is one of the country's umbrella groups representing unions.

Annisette told the media Dookeran suggested that there may be constraints in trying to meet commitments from different sectors of the national community.

"We raised the important issue of the outstanding negotiations that need to be settled, whether it’s with the police service, the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) and in bargaining units that my union represents, but the Finance Minister said that they are not in a position to deal with all wages right now,” the Trinidad Guardian quoted Annisette as saying.

Annisette told the paper he discussed with Dookeran the idea of employee ownership programmes and increased shares for workers and made a proposal that the government introduce a $13.50 minimum wage as an interim measure.

Annisette said the discussions also covered the government's idea of flexible time for workers and agreed that it is a good idea.

“We pointed out that the traffic situation is an impediment to productivity in the country and one way of mitigating this is through a flexitime system that the Government can implement.

"The Government is the largest employer in the country and it should implement a system where instead of workers coming to work at 8 am they can come in much later and work their way into the night. There must be solutions to the traffic situation,” he said.

“We spoke about food security and doing more to help local farmers to produce more food so that the food import bill for the country could be reduced,” he said.

“It was an open meeting and we told the Finance Minister and his team that there must be a peaceful industrial relations system if there is to be productivity and foreign investment into the country. We spoke about the importance of the tri-partite approach,” Annisette told the paper.