Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar's state­ment that Gov­ern­ment will not de­vi­ate from its five per cent of­fer to trade unions is a vi­o­la­tion of the col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing process.So said Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (Natuc) pres­i­dent gen­er­al Michael An­nisette.He added it was re­gret­table Gov­ern­ment was tak­ing an in­flex­i­ble stand.Per­sad-Bisses­sar told re­porters at Pi­ar­co yes­ter­day morn­ing up­on her re­turn from the Unit­ed States: "I do not in­tend to de­vi­ate from five per cent."She was re­spond­ing to ques­tions sur­round­ing wage ne­go­ti­a­tions.

An­nisette said: "We have our po­si­tion and they have theirs."It is re­gret­table that she would take an in­flex­i­ble stand and al­so that she would make such a state­ment giv­en what ne­go­ti­a­tions are all about."The Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) yes­ter­day ac­cept­ed Gov­ern­ment's five per cent of­fer af­ter months of protest .An­nisette said Gov­ern­ment need­ed to have mean­ing­ful di­a­logue with trade union heads in or­der to find a res­o­lu­tion.

He said the PM's state­ments would cre­ate un­nec­es­sary con­fronta­tion.He added: "If ne­go­ti­a­tions are politi­cised then it rais­es se­ri­ous ques­tions about the ne­go­ti­a­tions process."Her state­ment is a vi­o­la­tion of the process and what Gov­ern­ment is do­ing is mar­gin­al­is­ing and di­lut­ing the process." On Thurs­day, Natuc said there would be a se­ries of shut­downs and that it would not back down and ac­cept the five per cent of­fer."There is a lot of in­equal­i­ty as it re­lates to peo­ple's in­comes."He said an emer­gency meet­ing would be held to de­ter­mine the next step.

Al­though not abreast of the PSA's ac­cep­tance, An­nisette said:

"We don't know the cir­cum­stances un­der which the PSA ac­cept­ed so we will eval­u­ate and de­cide."Al­so echo­ing his state­ments were Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers pres­i­dent-gen­er­al James Lam­bert and Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­ers' Union pres­i­dent gen­er­al Roland Suther­land.Lam­bert said: "We would meet and dis­cuss what our next strat­e­gy would be. If she would not budge, then we would not budge."