Raphael John-Lall

T&T is cel­e­brat­ing Labour Day 2023 to­mor­row at a time of eco­nom­ic un­cer­tain­ty and “ag­gres­sive union ac­tiv­i­ty,” ac­cord­ing to pres­i­dent of the Hu­man Re­source Man­age­ment As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (HRMATT) Cavelle Joseph-St Omer.

In a state­ment to the Sun­day Busi­ness Guardian, she said sim­i­lar to the 2019 to 2022 pe­ri­od, there is dis­rup­tion in the work­place be­cause of these fac­tors.

“We are see­ing ag­gres­sive union ac­tiv­i­ty, as they clam­our for per­cent­age in­creas­es and not see be­yond the per­cent­ages. We are al­so ob­serv­ing an in­crease in em­ploy­ee ac­tivism and so­cial me­dia jus­tice around work­place is­sues.

“What this is telling us is that there is a need for em­ploy­ers to re­assess every­thing from hu­man re­sources poli­cies to em­ploy­ee en­gage­ment, to or­gan­i­sa­tion­al cul­ture with­in the con­text of the em­ploy­ee re­la­tions trends.”

She said com­pa­nies across all sec­tors need to start mak­ing ad­just­ments as they con­tin­ue to work in a pe­ri­od with the most di­verse work­force in hu­man his­to­ry. In most busi­ness­es, mil­len­ni­als al­ready make up a high­er por­tion of the work­force and will con­tin­ue to do so.

“Gen­er­a­tion Z is grad­u­at­ing and start­ing their ca­reers and there­fore there are some work­places with five gen­er­a­tions in it. Nat­u­ral­ly con­flict will arise. What we re­quire is mod­ern think­ing by both the unions and em­ploy­ers in re­solv­ing work­place is­sues that nat­u­ral­ly will arise as a con­se­quence of this.”

She al­so spoke about the na­tion­al econ­o­my say­ing that it is a time of “scarci­ty” for many in the coun­try.

“We live in a time where there is fi­nan­cial scarci­ty, where em­ploy­ers are try­ing to re­ces­sion-proof their busi­ness­es, where the em­ploy­ee ex­pe­ri­ence is be­ing re­de­fined; where hy­brid work­place mod­els are be­ing utilised and or in some in­stances be­ing ex­plored, and there­fore a hu­man ap­proach on both sides is re­quired in the em­ploy­er—union re­la­tion­ship. Amid an eco­nom­ic down­turn in some sec­tors, in­creased em­ploy­er chal­lenges, and shifts in the labour mar­ket; how unions, their bar­gain­ing units, and their sup­port­ers han­dle these chal­lenges will make 2023 a make-or-break year for the mo­men­tum that unions hope to main­tain.”

Stake­hold­er di­a­logue

Giv­en the chal­lenges in the na­tion­al econ­o­my and chang­ing trends in the work­force lo­cal­ly and glob­al­ly, she said busi­ness lead­ers are find­ing it dif­fi­cult to meet the needs of em­ploy­ees in the work­place.

“Busi­ness lead­ers to­day are con­fronting un­prece­dent­ed labour chal­lenges with the great­est con­se­quences. Be­cause of re­ces­sion­ary con­di­tions, in­fla­tion and the pan­dem­ic, work­ers feel less se­cure in their jobs and un­cer­tain about whether they can af­ford a de­cent stan­dard of liv­ing. At the same time, they want more from their jobs. In ad­di­tion to want­i­ng high­er pay and dig­ni­fied work­ing con­di­tions, they ex­pect their em­ploy­ers to re­flect their val­ues. Thanks to so­cial me­dia, em­ploy­ees are able to com­mu­ni­cate their ex­pec­ta­tions, ex­pe­ri­ences, and griev­ances in new ways. They can share pri­vate­ly with one an­oth­er and wide­ly with the pub­lic, in re­al time. They can con­nect with and en­list cus­tomers and oth­er stake­hold­ers as al­lies more eas­i­ly than ever, mak­ing it hard­er for any busi­ness leader to man­age the 2023 work­force.”

She called for both the busi­ness sec­tor and unions to have di­a­logue to solve the com­plex prob­lems that so­ci­ety faces.

“What is re­quired is not for em­ploy­ers to sup­press the voice of the work­ers but to find ways to work to­geth­er in the in­ter­est of the or­gan­i­sa­tion. Busi­ness lead­ers and union lead­ers can choose a path in the in­ter­est of the com­mon fac­tor (the busi­ness). They can start work­ing to rein­vent cor­po­rate em­ploy­er – em­ploy­ee re­la­tion­ship with unions so that more peo­ple can share in the re­wards and com­pa­nies can com­pete and grow in new ways. Both sides need to learn how to work with, rather than against, each oth­er. This year, 2023, is show­ing us that the skill of lead­ing an or­gan­ised work­force—or lead­ing as if your work­force is or­gan­ised, re­gard­less of its union sta­tus—may well be­come the crit­i­cal lead­er­ship skill that all lead­ers must have.”

Labour view

Lec­tur­er of Trade Union Stud­ies at the Cipri­ani Col­lege of Labour and Co-op­er­a­tive Stud­ies, Trevor John­son told the Sun­day Busi­ness Guardian that on June 19, 2023, the labour move­ment will ob­serve and cel­e­brate the 86th an­niver­sary of the birth of the mod­ern trade union move­ment in T&T and the theme for Labour Day 2023 is “Peo­ple’s Pow­er, Peo­ple Mat­ter.”

The theme sig­nals a call to Gov­ern­ment to put the av­er­age cit­i­zen of T&T first and not just a se­lect few, John­son said.

Some of the burn­ing is­sues he said that the trade union move­ment faces in 2023 in­clude the need for up­dat­ed labour leg­is­la­tion, ur­gent among which is the time­li­ness of the recog­ni­tion process for unions to be grant­ed cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for new groups of work­ers.

He said the pro­lif­er­a­tion of con­tract work con­tin­ues to be a burn­ing is­sue and no doubt ne­go­ti­a­tions in the pub­lic and state sec­tor will be in the spot­light.

He al­so point­ed out that the trade union fed­er­a­tions in­di­cat­ed their in­ten­tion sev­er­al weeks ago to re­port the Gov­ern­ment of T&T to the In­ter­na­tion­al Labour Or­gan­i­sa­tion (ILO) for not ad­her­ing to the prin­ci­ples of sev­er­al ILO Con­ven­tions such as #87 Free­dom of As­so­ci­a­tion and Pro­tec­tion of the Right to Or­gan­ise and con­ven­tion #98: Right to Or­gan­ise and Col­lec­tive Bar­gain­ing.

“A re­cent judg­ment of the Ap­peal Court has ef­fec­tive­ly stymied the 40-year-plus prac­tice ap­proved by the Recog­ni­tion, Reg­is­tra­tion and Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Board (RRCB) and used by trade unions to make ap­pli­ca­tions to the RRCB for cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to rep­re­sent new groups of work­ers. Col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing is al­so un­der threat as the Gov­ern­ment is no longer en­gaged in free and fair ne­go­ti­a­tions but rather dic­tat­ing what set­tle­ments must be and hav­ing these car­ried out by var­i­ous agen­cies of the state.”

He al­so said all stake­hold­ers must ad­dress so­cial is­sues like crime.

“Crime and its im­pact on work­ers and the work­place are al­so be­com­ing a trou­bling is­sue that must be ad­dressed. As an ex­am­ple, in sev­er­al ar­eas to­day pub­lic util­i­ty work­ers re­quire po­lice es­cort or com­pa­ny se­cu­ri­ty just to go about their dai­ly tasks. Many are threat­ened on a reg­u­lar ba­sis. This must be ad­dressed.”

He al­so ad­vo­cat­ed stake­hold­er con­sul­ta­tion be­tween the busi­ness class and labour to con­front the coun­try’s press­ing prob­lems.

“This is al­ways an ide­al and an ob­jec­tive that the par­ties can work to­wards. Dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, as an ex­am­ple, labour met with the Em­ploy­ers Con­sul­ta­tive As­so­ci­a­tion (ECA) and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the re­spec­tive cham­bers to ad­dress com­mon ap­proach­es to is­sues im­pact­ing the work place in this re­gard.”