Protesting workers of the Public Transportation Service Corporation (PTSC) left dozens of commuters stranded in the nation’s capital on Tuesday.
Trade unions such as the PTSC section of the Public Service Association (PSA) and the Transport & Industrial Workers’ Union (TIWU) cite a number of issues facing the corporation such as unfilled positions.
Tuesday’s action was, however, prompted by the news of the HR manager of PTSC was being fired. This they say has been the fourth change within a few months.
Darryl Lamy, the PTSC section chairman of the PSA, said: “We went to seek information, and based on what he (PTSC general manager Bashir Mohammed) told us, the information ain’t worth no merit. His statement was that it just was not working out. So the past four HR managers you would have fired, none of them worked out? The only main denominator here is the board. So how could all the managers you hire have an issue and the board remains perfect? Something is wrong.”
He further said that in the past 15 years, they have hired and fired ten HR managers.
“When you bring in a new HR manager, we have to start over again — start over the process of all the grievances, by the time workers are getting disgruntled,” he said.
According to Marcus Grannum, the Port-of-Spain branch president of TIWU, the corporation’s management was failing in doing their duty to adequately provide for their workers.
He said the workers would continue their action until they receive a meeting with Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan. The current management, Grannum said, was feeding the minister false information about the workers.
“The minister needs to step in right now at this moment…he (Sinanan) said a lot of times in the media that we don’t work so we not working right now until we speak with him…the board has to be removed.”
He also stressed that the workers mobilised this action; not the unions, however, they would stand behind them.