Ke­jan Haynes

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

ke­jan.haynes@guardian.co.tt

The Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) has stepped up pres­sure on the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) over stalled ne­go­ti­a­tions for new salaries, back­pay and oth­er costs as­so­ci­at­ed with work­ers’ terms and con­di­tions of em­ploy­ment.

PSA pres­i­dent Fe­l­isha Thomas led work­ers in a protest out­side WASA’s Pub­lic Ed­u­ca­tion Cen­tre yes­ter­day, say­ing the union had reached out to man­age­ment to con­tin­ue ne­go­ti­a­tions but was dis­sat­is­fied with the progress on the cost pro­pos­als.

Thomas said the pro­pos­als, sub­mit­ted since Jan­u­ary, had not been ad­vanced by WASA man­age­ment.

“The man­age­ment would have in­di­cat­ed that they have not done any­thing with the cost pro­pos­als from Jan­u­ary to Au­gust,” Thomas said.

Thomas said the di­rec­tor of hu­man re­sources, who is re­spon­si­ble for mov­ing the pro­pos­als from the ne­go­ti­at­ing ta­ble to the board and ul­ti­mate­ly the Min­istry of Fi­nance, had not tak­en the nec­es­sary steps.

“She has not so much as pre­pared a note to the Hu­man Re­source Ad­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee to ad­vance the cost pro­pos­als on be­half of WASA work­ers,” Thomas said.

She said the union had there­fore told man­age­ment that work­ers would not ac­cept busi­ness as usu­al while the pro­pos­als re­mained stalled.

“We will not be leav­ing. It will not be work as usu­al un­til our cost pro­pos­als are sub­mit­ted to the min­istry,” Thomas said.

The PSA pres­i­dent said work­ers would re­main at the Sports Club for man­age­ment to com­plete the process and urged board mem­bers to ap­prove the nec­es­sary doc­u­men­ta­tion.

“We have called for the board mem­bers to come and ap­prove what they need to ap­prove so that that note can be ad­vanced to the min­istry,” she said.

Thomas, who cam­paigned with the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress on the ba­sis of its promise to in­crease pub­lic ser­vants’ sal­ries by 10 per cent, al­so warned that the de­lay could have con­se­quences for work­ers if the ne­go­ti­a­tions are not con­clud­ed be­fore the na­tion­al Bud­get.

She re­ferred to com­ments by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo that ne­go­ti­a­tions set­tled be­tween the mid-year re­view and the Bud­get would be ad­dressed in the Bud­get.

“If those ne­go­ti­a­tions are not signed off, it will not be catered for in the Bud­get and it will be yet an­oth­er year work­ers are with­out the in­crease in salary,” Thomas said.

She ac­cused man­age­ment of fail­ing to move the process along de­spite the pro­pos­als be­ing sub­mit­ted months ago.

“These ne­go­ti­a­tions, these sub­mis­sions were made since Jan­u­ary. We are in Au­gust and it is un­ac­cept­able for the di­rec­tor of HR to say that she has not moved this for­ward,” Thomas said.

The PSA is de­mand­ing that WASA man­age­ment and the board take the nec­es­sary steps to ad­vance the pro­pos­als to the Min­istry of Fi­nance and bring the ne­go­ti­a­tions clos­er to set­tle­ment.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to WASA for a re­sponse and was told ne­go­ti­a­tions were still un­der­way and the com­pa­ny would not be able to com­ment un­til they are con­clud­ed.