Jesse Ramdeo

The Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers Union (CWU) has ob­tained a stay on the re­trench­ment for 468 Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT) work­ers who were giv­en re­trench­ment no­tices by the State-owned com­pa­ny yes­ter­day.

CWU sec­re­tary gen­er­al Clyde El­der said the union sought an in­junc­tion af­ter re­ceiv­ing a let­ter from TSTT, to­geth­er with a flash dri­ve con­tain­ing over 3,400 pages of no­tices to mem­bers that they were ef­fec­tive­ly re­trenched from June 1.

He said the union ar­gued that the move by TSTT was not in com­pli­ance with the laws of T&T and with prop­er in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions prac­tices, and that the court agreed just be­fore 8 pm on Tues­day to grant the stay of re­trench­ment.

El­der said the court set June 14 as the day for the con­tin­u­a­tion of the hear­ing on the mat­ter and has ad­vised TSTT that it can­not en­gage in any re­trench­ment of mem­bers of the bar­gain­ing units.

He said the union's ar­gu­ment was that ac­cord­ing to the In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Act, TSTT need­ed to give 45 days' no­tice of re­trench­ment, adding al­though the com­pa­ny sought to pay work­ers for 45 days in lieu of the time pe­ri­od re­quired for the no­tice, the union did not ac­cept this to be le­gal.

"Those acts by the com­pa­ny were il­le­gal, wrong and need­ed to be chal­lenged and we were able to chal­lenge that suc­cess­ful­ly," El­der said.

Communication Workers Union secretary-general Clyde Elder.

He said the union al­so asked the court to rule that work­ers should not re­port to work to­day but that the court in­stead said the work­ers will be al­lowed to turn up to work but can al­so choose not to.

The union must pro­vide TSTT with a list of work­ers who will choose not to work pend­ing the out­come of the mat­ter and the work­ers can­not be forced by the com­pa­ny in any di­rec­tion.

El­der said the com­pa­ny did not have pri­or dis­cus­sions with the union on its de­ci­sion to pay the work­ers in lieu of no­tices.

"That did not come up in any way at all dur­ing our dis­cus­sions," he said.

He added that the mood of the work­ers is now one of dis­en­chant­ment with the com­pa­ny.

"Peo­ple are feel­ing hurt be­cause years they gave the com­pa­ny amount­ed to noth­ing. They have been shown no dig­ni­ty by the com­pa­ny," El­der said.

He said the union has al­so re­ject­ed TSTT's jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the re­trench­ment ex­er­cise as one of 'sus­tain­abil­i­ty'.

"Since 2018, TSTT said that this mea­sure will cause sus­tain­abil­i­ty for the com­pa­ny. Here we are say­ing the same thing again," he said, adding that a de­f­i­n­i­tion for mad­ness is do­ing the same thing over and over and ex­pect­ing a dif­fer­ent re­sult.

"TSTT has to be mad," he said.

"There will be more work for less peo­ple to do and there will be fall­outs from that."

In a re­lease yes­ter­day, TSTT con­firmed 468 em­ploy­ees will be sent home as it com­mences its re­struc­tur­ing ex­er­cise.

“Of this num­ber, 403 em­ploy­ees, com­pris­ing a mix of ju­nior and se­nior staff and es­tate po­lice of­fi­cers will, in keep­ing with the col­lec­tive agree­ments with their rep­re­sen­ta­tive unions, each re­ceive pay­ment in lieu of the reg­u­la­to­ry 45 days’ no­tice,” TSTT said.

TSTT not­ed that the move was aimed at po­si­tion­ing the com­pa­ny for sus­tain­abil­i­ty/prof­itabil­i­ty.

“The need to re­struc­ture TSTT is ur­gent and crit­i­cal, ne­ces­si­tat­ed both by the im­pact of chal­leng­ing eco­nom­ic con­di­tions brought on by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and the dras­tic ef­fect of changes in tech­nol­o­gy on the com­pa­ny’s op­er­a­tion and per­for­mance,” the com­pa­ny said.

Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago CEO Lisa Agard.

El­der ex­plained that the sweep­ing move was not sur­pris­ing but not­ed the al­leged breach in the law was a cause for con­cern.

TSTT CEO Lisa Agard said the com­pa­ny had no op­tion but to re­struc­ture to re­main com­pet­i­tive, adding the com­pa­ny was mov­ing to adopt a mod­el that was more in line with cur­rent in­dus­try bench­marks.

“Giv­en our chal­lenges, TSTT has no op­tion but to re­struc­ture to re­main com­pet­i­tive. We are mov­ing to an op­er­at­ing mod­el that is more in line with in­dus­try bench­marks, and one that will en­able us to adapt and evolve with the con­stant de­vel­op­ments in tech­nol­o­gy. This is our on­ly op­tion if we are to re­turn to sus­tain­able prof­itabil­i­ty,” Agard said.

In the fi­nan­cial year end­ed March 31, 2021, the com­pa­ny said the pan­dem­ic, cou­pled with eco­nom­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal fac­tors, had led to a $453 mil­lion fall in rev­enue­—18 per cent less than the pri­or year.

Back in March 2022, a Cab­i­net sub-com­mit­tee led by Camille Robin­son-Reg­is was tasked with re­view­ing the com­pa­ny and mak­ing rec­om­men­da­tions on its fu­ture.

The loss-mak­ing en­ti­ty ac­knowl­edged that it be­gan con­sul­ta­tions with stake­hold­ers on the re­struc­tur­ing ex­er­cise ear­li­er this year.

“On Jan­u­ary 17, 2022, TSTT in­vit­ed its em­ploy­ee rep­re­sen­ta­tive unions to con­sul­ta­tions re­gard­ing the pro­posed re­struc­tur­ing and re­fine­ment of its op­er­at­ing/busi­ness mod­el. Con­sul­ta­tions with em­ploy­ees and the rep­re­sen­ta­tive ma­jor­i­ty unions, in­clud­ing the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Work­ers’ Union (CWU) and Es­tate Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion (EPA), be­gan on Feb­ru­ary 1 and were con­duct­ed in good faith and in line with best in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions prac­tice. The com­pa­ny en­gaged with the RMUs and its em­ploy­ees by meet­ing vir­tu­al­ly and by ex­change of com­mu­ni­ca­tion on mat­ters re­lat­ed to the need for change, the ra­tio­nale for the pro­posed struc­ture and its staffing,” the com­pa­ny said in its state­ment.

TSTT is joint­ly owned by the gov­ern­ment and Ca­ble and Wire­less Com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

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