Government appoints new RRCB board to strengthen industrial relations framework

The Gov­ern­ment has ap­point­ed a new board to the Reg­is­tra­tion Recog­ni­tion and Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Board (RRCB), with Labour Min­is­ter say­ing the move re­in­forces its com­mit­ment to a fair and trans­par­ent in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions sys­tem.

The ap­point­ments were for­malised dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny host­ed by the Min­istry of Labour, Small and Mi­cro En­ter­prise De­vel­op­ment on April 10 at the In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Cen­tre in Port of Spain.

Bap­tiste said the RRCB plays a crit­i­cal role in safe­guard­ing the coun­try’s in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions cli­mate, en­sur­ing that work­ers and em­ploy­ers op­er­ate with­in a frame­work guid­ed by trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and mu­tu­al re­spect.

Es­tab­lished un­der the In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Act, Chap­ter 88:01, the RRCB is re­spon­si­ble for mat­ters re­lat­ed to the recog­ni­tion and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of trade unions. This in­cludes de­ter­min­ing ap­pli­ca­tions for recog­ni­tion, cer­ti­fy­ing ma­jor­i­ty unions, and con­duct­ing bal­lots and re­lat­ed pro­ceed­ings.

“The work of the RRCB sits at a vi­tal in­ter­sec­tion where gov­er­nance di­rect­ly im­pacts the lives and liveli­hoods of our peo­ple,” Bap­tiste said.

The new board will be chaired by , who said she in­tends to guide the body with in­tegri­ty and a fo­cus on the pub­lic good.

The oth­er mem­bers are Arthur Stew­art, Ake­ba Ado­ra Wil­son, Christo­pher Streete, Nazreen Haynes-Davis, Ted­dy Sta­ple­ton, Paul Floyd James, Ke­ston Nan­coo, Neil Der­rick, Giselle Estra­da, Gwen­do­line Mc Laren, Rachael Su­dan, Lennon Bal­lah, Charles Mar­tin de Gannes, Sonya Lequay and Ian Daniel.