Zahra Gor­don

The Oil­fields Work­ers' Trade Union (OW­TU) is threat­en­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) with in­dus­tri­al ac­tion if the com­pa­ny fails to meet union de­mands for in­ves­ti­ga­tions and stricter ad­her­ence to safe­ty reg­u­la­tions.

The union claims that neg­li­gence by T&TEC man­age­ment re­sult­ed in five on-the-job fa­tal­i­ties with­in the past 11 months.

OW­TU pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get and vice-pres­i­dent Pe­ter Burke held a press con­fer­ence at the OW­TU Para­mount Build­ing, Roy­al Road, San Fer­nan­do, yes­ter­day morn­ing af­ter a T&TEC con­trac­tor Gayadeen Lokhoor was elec­tro­cut­ed in Point Fortin on Sat­ur­day morn­ing. Ro­get claimed T&TEC was "ex­ploit­ing" the use of con­tract work­ers who were in many cas­es "not com­pe­tent or in­ex­pe­ri­enced."

He added that the "pro­lif­er­a­tion" of con­tract work­ers used by T&TEC was not in keep­ing with the col­lec­tive agree­ment be­tween T&TEC and the OW­TU. He al­so ac­cused T&TEC se­nior man­age­ment of be­ing in "col­lu­sion" with con­trac­tors who had more than one fa­tal­i­ty on their records. Ro­get an­nounced three de­mands:

• The re­moval of all er­rant con­trac­tors;

• an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion of three spe­cif­ic con­trac­tors with al­leged con­nec­tions to T&TEC se­nior man­age­ment; and

• in in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to reg­u­la­to­ry agen­cies such as the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Agency, the line min­istry, In­dus­tri­al Court and Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion.

The reg­u­la­to­ry agen­cies were al­so ac­cused of be­ing in col­lu­sion with T&TEC man­age­ment. Al­though a time­line has not yet been es­tab­lished, Ro­get said the union would re­spond with protest ac­tion if the de­mands were not met. Burke said T&TEC was not on­ly neg­li­gent to safe­ty reg­u­la­tions but had al­lowed in­sur­ance for work­ers to lapse for three days in Ju­ly which he de­scribed as "reck­less."

Lokhoor, 46, of Ramjohn Trace, Pe­nal, worked for N&S Elec­tri­cal. On Sat­ur­day, Lokhoor's shoul­der came in­to con­tact with a line which he be­lieved was dead. His up­per left side was burnt. He died on ar­rival at the Point Fortin Area Hos­pi­tal. Lokhoor's com­mon-law wife Aari­ka Men­doza said al­though her hus­band was not cer­ti­fied, he had worked for var­i­ous elec­tri­cal com­pa­nies since he was 25 years old.