The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) notes the four-year silence surrounding the Telecommunication Services of T&T’s (TSTT) so-called “Fit for Purpose” report as a grave travesty on transparency, political abuse and corporate neglect, with “blows” to be rendered on the past administration and now the current administration under the purview of Barry Padarath, previously the noisemaker on the opposition bench.
At the time it was launched by the former People’s National Movement government, to look into the state of the company’s operations, it was best described as a “not so deep dive.” Four years later, the report seems to have sunken. What TSTT employees and, by extension, the citizenry has seen over the years is managed and convenient silence.
Four years later, on this day (May 11, 2026), we are yet to see the report, much less ask that it be published, or if there were any recommendations that would have made the company’s operations more efficient. What we have seen and continue to see is “no established accountability,” just a shift of the goalpost with a different team playing the same games.
This cannot be seen as just an administrative oversight. It is a failure of governance past and current, with a continued silence of convenience. The PNM administration presided over restructuring exercises and “union busting” in 2018 and again in 2022, which displaced hundreds of workers and their families, altered operational structures to appear result-oriented and destroyed institutional knowledge at the behest of “operational overheads,” which punished loyal employees who laboured at TSTT for years.
TSTT, through the then CFO and CEO, said it was “restructure or die.” Yet, while employees endured two retrenchments and immense institutional upheaval, the taxpayers were never furnished with the empirical evidence proving that these painful exercises were either effective or even necessary.
Four years later, and undoubtedly more years may come, the same fundamental questions remain unanswered to retrenched workers, the union and the citizens.
Did the restructuring improve operational efficiency and profitability? Or did it just “bust the union” to promote avenues for continued wanton wastage at the executive level and an expansion on consultancy hires, which still exists today at TSTT.
We, the citizens, deserve to know how a state enterprise could restructure its workforce twice within four years while simultaneously engaging in questionable spending patterns, executive growth, massive sponsorship exercises, acquisitions and strategic ventures without transparent national reporting. How is this done without answers to taxpayers?
The CWU, therefore, asks plainly: Is TSTT truly fit for purpose?
The union is asking TSTT pointed questions around the operational stability and where the audited strategic outcomes tied to the restructuring exercises are, if they even exist.
Now, with the very shrouded secrecy of the Amplia acquisition, which has now conveniently found itself again in the public domain and recent ministerial scrutiny, what will be the next move for those workers? Will they be absorbed into the parent company to save face, after years of the CWU calling out the company on this “erroneous spend and financial bleed”?
For years, questions by the CWU surrounding Amplia were treated by TSTT as dismissive with scant courtesy, bastardised and avoided, or treated as though they existed outside the remit of public accountability. Yet, today, even the current United National Congress administration has acknowledged the need to investigate the acquisition, including a valuation, duplication concerns, and the strategic rationale behind the transaction.
However, the CWU cautions the present administration against selective outrage and seeking political mileage. It must not be seen that the Government, now in the position of power, will simply continue their opposition rhetoric while inheriting the posture of silence in office. Ministerial responsibility now demands swift and decisive action, disclosure and accountability, not media statements and social media likes alone.
TSTT workers are no longer interested in political posturing and semantics between former and present administrations, while uncertainty continues to engulf and plague the future of TSTT and their bread and butter.
The reality is if Amplia’s acquisition is now under scrutiny, then the national conversation must also address whether TSTT’s core operations remain sufficiently viable without that “bleeding” subsidiary appearing to cushion revenue streams, if any.
If we envision the future strategic direction to be contemplating some degree of exclusion, integration, duplication elimination, or even operational consolidation between Amplia and TSTT, then workers must be informed immediately. Any other “interference” with TSTT is an indictment or manslaughter of and on workers.
CWU, therefore, raises another unavoidable question that must be answered: What is the strategic direction for employees if Amplia’s operational structure is about to be altered, absorbed, or even fundamentally reviewed, which the union believes is coming! Will workers become collateral damage in such executive decision-making with another restructuring exercise? Will the repetitive duplication arguments made by the union now be used to justify displacement, in an attempt to scare employees across both entities?
We, the taxpayers, deserve transparency and accountability on how billions in public assets, telecommunications infrastructure, a 255-million-dollar acquisition, executive expenditures, and restructuring exercises have truly positioned TSTT in 2026. This deafening silence can no longer be defended as prudence on whether TSTT is “fit for purpose.” The CWU, therefore, maintains that accountability to workers and citizens cannot exist only when governments sit in opposition. Four years later, T&T is still waiting for answers, so tell us, is “TSTT fit for purpose?”
