Unions happy after NUGFW gets 10% increase

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Some trade unions have en­dorsed the Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers’ (NUGFW) agree­ment with the State for a 10 per cent wage in­crease, 60 per cent of which will be paid in non-cash ben­e­fits.

The agree­ment, which cov­ers the 2014-2019 bar­gain­ing pe­ri­od, will ben­e­fit ap­prox­i­mate­ly 20,000 work­ers and cost the State $2.6 bil­lion in back­pay, while adding $252 mil­lion an­nu­al­ly to the wage bill. Of that sum, about $1 bil­lion rep­re­sents cash pay­ments, with the re­main­ing $1.56 bil­lion to be paid in non-cash ben­e­fits.

Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Union (CG­WU)pres­i­dent gen­er­al Er­mine De Bique-Meade said her union had no is­sue with NUGFW work­ers re­ceiv­ing a 10 per cent in­crease split be­tween cash and fi­nan­cial in­stru­ments, not­ing that such an ap­proach can ben­e­fit work­ers. She added that non-cash pay­ments for ar­rears may en­cour­age greater fi­nan­cial dis­ci­pline, as lump sum cash pay­ments are of­ten quick­ly spent.

How­ev­er, she said a sim­i­lar pro­pos­al by her union was re­ject­ed by Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer Dr Daryl Din­di­al when it was put for­ward two years ago.

“As pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the Con­trac­tors and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Union, I in­di­cat­ed to the CPO that if the Gov­ern­ment could not pay the full amount in cash, we would rec­om­mend a per­cent­age in cash and a per­cent­age in fi­nan­cial in­stru­ments,” she said.

De Bique-Meade main­tained that a long­stand­ing dis­par­i­ty re­mains be­tween dai­ly-paid work­ers at the San Fer­nan­do and Port-of-Spain city cor­po­ra­tions and those rep­re­sent­ed by the NUGFW. She said this gap stems from job eval­u­a­tions con­duct­ed be­tween 2000 and 2005 for NUGFW-rep­re­sent­ed work­ers, whose wages have since out­paced those at mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions, in­clud­ing the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion.

She said the CG­WU had ar­gued that since no job eval­u­a­tion was con­duct­ed for San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion work­ers, it was un­fair for them to lag. As a re­sult, the union pushed for NUGFW rates to be used as the mar­ket bench­mark in ne­go­ti­a­tions.

“When we pre­sent­ed those ar­gu­ments, it was agreed that they would use the rates NUGFW was re­ceiv­ing as the mar­ket bench­mark. There­fore, what we agreed and signed for was that NUGFW rates would guide the process, with the 0-0-2 per cent ap­plied to dai­ly-paid work­ers at the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion.”

She said dai­ly-paid work­ers at the Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion face a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion. With NUGFW rates now in­creased, De Bique-Meade said the union will ar­gue in up­com­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions for the 2020–2022 pe­ri­od that those rates must con­tin­ue to be used as the bench­mark, with up­dat­ed salaries ap­plied be­fore any per­cent­age in­crease is added.

The Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers Union (TI­WU) has al­so backed the agree­ment, not­ing that non-cash pay­ments for ar­rears can be ben­e­fi­cial de­pend­ing on the cir­cum­stances.

TI­WU pres­i­dent Shawn Roberts said the size of the bar­gain­ing unit may have in­flu­enced the out­come, giv­en the coun­try’s fi­nan­cial con­straints. He not­ed that op­tions such as bonds or hous­ing could form part of such arrange­ments, but said this is not cur­rent­ly un­der con­sid­er­a­tion in ne­go­ti­a­tions in­volv­ing the Pub­lic Trans­port Ser­vice Cor­po­ra­tion and the Na­tion­al Main­te­nance Train­ing and Se­cu­ri­ty Com­pa­ny. TI­WU is seek­ing a 25 per cent in­crease for NMTS work­ers and a 30 per cent in­crease for PTSC work­ers for the 2014–2020 pe­ri­od.

Mean­while, the Joint Trade Union Move­ment is ex­pect­ed to meet to­day to dis­cuss the agree­ment at the lead­er­ship lev­el.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Din­di­al and is await­ing a re­sponse.