A total of 30 trade unions and workers' representative organisations were invited to the Labour Stakeholder Meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the Diplomatic Centre on January 22, 2015. Fully 26 organisations attended. This meeting was one of several stakeholder gatherings which the Prime Minister had called, in the wake of her address got the nation on January 8. This address called attention to the Government's position regarding what was seen as the possible impact of the downward slide in oil and energy prices on the local economy.
The Oilfields Workers Trade Union was prominent among those invited organisations not in attendance, on January 22. The OWTU is a leading member of the grouping known as the Federation of Independence Trade Unions and NGO's (Fitun). It is also central to the parallel grouping known as the Movement for Social Justice, which was a party to the Fyzabad Accord of April 2010, and which became the blueprint for the formation of the People's Partnership. Citing what it termed repeatedly as the Government's abandonment of the "Labour Agenda" the MSJ broke ranks and left the Partnership in 2012, its leading figures thereafter declaring open warfare against the government.
Relatively early in its term, however, the Persad-Bissessar-led government had established an "Industrial Relations Advisory Committee," first under the chairmanship of labour lawyer and lecturer Lennox Marcelle. Labour Minister, Errol Mc Leod had emerged as the first Political Leader of the MSJ, but ceded that position to David Abdulah, General Secretary of the OWTU, who had started the current parliamentary term as a Government Senator.
In 2013, the Government went another step, with the establishment of a Social Dialogue Task Force, involving representatives of the Government, the Private Sector and the trade union movement, with the expressed intention of widening this grouping to include representatives from Civil Society and the community of Non-Government Organisations. This body is chaired my Minister Mc Leod.
In a statement carried in the media on May 9, Mr Joseph Remy, President of the Communication Workers Union and a leading figure in the Fitun said his organisation abandoned the Task Force, because of its observation that the Minister, as Chairman, was absent from several meetings. But the organisation's letter of withdrawal, dated August 11, 2014, put forward a series of different reasons, none of which had anything to do with the Minister's attendance record at meetings. One of those purported triggers, the letter said, related to an alleged "non-implementation of the workers agenda", and what Mr Remy described puzzlingly as "recent developments in the political arena."
It should be noted that the Fitun is not a recognised umbrella trade union body registered with the Ministry of Labour, neither does the Ministry have in its records the composition of this body.
The Government's unquestioned commitment to the maintenance of best practice in industrial relations, and of worker inclusion in major decision making for sustainable development, is encapsulated in the existence of both the Social Dialogue Task Force, and the Industrial Relations Advisory committee.
But this, simply, is only where the story begins. In a report listing its major achievements for the period 2010 to the present, the Ministry lists as priority item number, four essential pieces of legislation, reforms of which have been passed in the parliament during this period. These are: the Masters and Servants Ordinance; the Maternity Protection Act; the Minimum Wages Act and the Workmen's Compensation Act.
Amendments to the Industrial Relations Act, The Proposed Co-operative societies (Amendment) Bill 2014 and the Occupational Safety and Health Authority were listed as "Labour Legislation under preparation and consideration for eventually tabling in Parliament."
Both trade union and employer and private sector representatives have raised concerns about specific clauses in the amended IRA. But one undeniable advancement in the new legislation is the move to provided legal recognition and protection for domestics and several other categories of workers who have until now been denied such status and protection, under the laws of Trinidad and Tobago.
In addition to the Industrial Relations Advisory Committee and the Social Dialogue Task Force, the Ministry listed among other tripartite arrangements, the National Productivity Council, the Standing Labour Market Council and the ILO 144 Tripartite Committee.
A review of the operations of the Registration, Recognition and Certification Board led to the appointment of a new board in February 2015, with top priority being given to the expeditious determination of all applications for certification, these relating specifically to the right of workers to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. Outside of these comprehensive agenda items having directly to do with the Ministry's conscientious pursuit of advancing the Labour Agenda, the Ministry has been hard at work in a wide range of other related endeavours over the last five years.
Andrew Johnson is a spokesman for the PP government.