The Prisons Officers Association will sign the five per cent wage increase offer made by Chief Personnel Officer Stephanie Lewis, on Friday.The association held a meeting with its membership on Monday at the head office on Eastern Main Road, Tunapuna.Prisons sources said "bacchanal broke out at the meeting after the members made the decision."President of the association Rajkumar Ramroop yesterday refused to comment on the signing.In an interview, however, a spokesman said: "The executive made a decision and the membership is willing to accept the offer and sign."
The spokesman said a vote was taken-94 officers voted in favour and 54 against-to accept the offer."A lot of people were not in favour, but the offer was put to the vote," he said. "It is not a true reflection of the membership and a lot of officers didn't attend the meeting...You have to go with what the majority wanted." The officer said, however, that the office was cramped and there was no accommodation for everybody because an alternative could not be found.He said the offer was "a contentious issue.""We and the Public Services Association are the only ones to accept it," he said.
"We were present with other unions and attempted to show solidarity against the five per cent offer in Fyzabad."We had an issue with the five per cent since last year...It reached a stage where it was not going anywhere and the negotiating team told the membership that the CPO's office would not move from the five per cent, and the majority decided to accept it."It was almost two to one," he added.He said the offer was two per cent increase for 2008, one per cent for 2009 and two per cent for 2010.