President of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), Joseph Remy, says TSTT workers will protest if they do not receive a favourable response from their employers by the end of the week regarding the payment of Cost of Living Allowances (Cola).The statement comes in response to CWU's victory last week in which the Industrial Court ruled that TSTT must pay workers the correct Cola rate to which both parties had mutually agreed.
In December 2011, TSTT reduced the Cost of Living Allowance from the fixed rate of $570.09 to $384.00 without consulting workers.In a telephone interview on Monday, Remy said the CWU wrote the company last Friday demanding that correct Cola payments be paid to workers on or before the next payroll for October 2013.He also demanded that all outstanding cola payments be made to junior staff with their next salaries.
For senior staff, however, Remy said "The company will be meeting with the CWU to discuss using the court award as the basis for resolving the existing dispute in relation to senior staff Cola."In 2010, the Industrial Court awarded a 12 per cent increase to junior staff, while TSTT proposed a 12 per cent increase for senior staff."Once the matter is resolved, the CWU will withdraw the dispute filed with the court regarding the senior staff Cola," he said.
Remy warned that "If TSTT fails to respond to our demands by Friday, we will hit the streets in protest action until the correct Cola is paid and wage negotiations are resolved."According to Remy, no wage negotiations have been held since 2007, and as such, TSTT workers "in 2013 have been getting paid a salary dated in 2007."He said that this was backward and unjust.
No worker has got a salary increase since then.He said when workers tried to hold wage negotiations after 2007, the company declared there would be no question of negotiations until the Cola matter was resolved. "Now that the Cola has been settled, the company has no excuse not to resume negotiations," Remy said.