Chester Sam­bra­no

While it may have been pre­dict­ed by some, the Fire Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion was still hop­ing that some­thing more than the four per cent wage in­crease of­fered to the po­lice on Mon­day would have been pro­posed to its mem­bers on Wednes­day.

How­ev­er, that was not the case when the as­so­ci­a­tion met with Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer (CPO) Daryl Din­di­al yes­ter­day, as the same four per cent was pro­posed.

“The of­fer that was placed on the ta­ble wasn’t what was ex­pect­ed. How­ev­er, the of­fer is 2,2, no pun in­tend­ed, the of­fer is 2,2,” pres­i­dent of the Fire Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (FOS) Leo Ramkissoon said af­ter the meet­ing.

But while the of­fer isn’t sit­ting well, some­thing the CPO said in the meet­ing isn’t ei­ther, as he gave them a two-week dead­line to re­spond.

“We did have some con­cerns in re­spect of the in­tro­duc­tion of the pos­si­bil­i­ty of the mat­ter re­sult­ing in a dis­pute if a re­sponse is not giv­en in a time­ly fash­ion and it’s go­ing to the oth­er place, mean­ing the court,” Ramkissoon said.

He said they found that to be un­nec­es­sary at this stage of the ne­go­ti­a­tions.

That be­ing said, he had words for the CPO, as he in­di­cat­ed that his as­so­ci­a­tion is not fazed by the CPO’s sup­posed warn­ing.

“As we say, if you com­ing to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.”

But Ramkissoon is not con­vinced that the po­si­tion be­ing tak­en by the CPO is of his own do­ing. He said he felt that the mes­sage and tone was that of the Gov­ern­ment.

The as­so­ci­a­tion now plans to meet with its mem­bers and get a new man­date.

This ap­proach is al­so be­ing tak­en by the Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (POA), which al­so met with the CPO on Wednes­day.

The same four per cent of­fer, 0,0,2 and 0,0,2 for 2014 to 2019, was placed on the ta­ble.

Pres­i­dent of the as­so­ci­a­tion, Ceron Richards, told Guardian Me­dia, “Right away, with­out even meet­ing our mem­bers, we know that falls way short of what their ex­pec­ta­tions are and we are an­tic­i­pat­ing our mem­bers will re­ject that, we cer­tain­ly re­ject that pro­pos­al.”

He de­scribed the meet­ing as be­ing “a bit tense.”

The POA has al­so been giv­en two weeks to re­ply to the CPO.

But he in­sist­ed, ”The both of­fers that were of­fered so far are noth­ing short of dis­gust­ing.”

Prison of­fi­cers are ask­ing for 20 per cent for 2014 to 2016, while fire of­fi­cers want a salary in­crease of 15 per cent for the same ne­go­ti­at­ing pe­ri­od.

The next as­so­ci­a­tion to meet with the CPO is the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA). That meet­ing is set for Fri­day morn­ing.

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