Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

An es­ti­mat­ed 800 po­lice of­fi­cers are yet to re­ceive their back­pay which was promised and paid out to pub­lic ser­vants at the end of 2023 - in time for Christ­mas.

Yes­ter­day, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter, Fitzger­ald Hinds, said the back­pay for over 800 po­lice of­fi­cers re­mains out­stand­ing due to sev­er­al fac­tors.

Speak­ing in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Hinds was asked by Cou­va South MP Rudy In­dars­ingh about the sta­tus of the out­stand­ing pay­out for the of­fi­cers.

“Hav­ing re­gard to the set­tle­ment for the col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing pe­ri­od 2014-2019, will the min­is­ter in­form this House of the num­ber of po­lice of­fi­cers who, as at De­cem­ber 15, 2024, are yet to re­ceive their back­pay?” In­dars­ingh asked.

Hinds ex­plained that re­sources are be­ing made avail­able to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) to re­solve the mat­ter. 

“Ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion pro­vid­ed by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice pro­vid­ed as at De­cem­ber 15, 2024, as a re­sult of in­com­plete per­son­nel records and oth­er mat­ters, there are 847 po­lice of­fi­cers who are yet to re­ceive their back­pay for the col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing pe­ri­od 2014-2019.”

Al­most two years ago, the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPSS­WA) and the Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer signed a mem­o­ran­dum of agree­ment for 2014-2016 and 2017-2019, in ac­cep­tance of the Gov­ern­ment’s four per cent of­fer.

How­ev­er, ac­cord­ing to Hinds, there were sev­er­al rea­sons be­hind the de­lay that has since left hun­dreds emp­ty-hand­ed.

“From the in­for­ma­tion made avail­able to me, there might not be a sin­gle spe­cif­ic rea­son. There might be a num­ber of rea­sons, in­clud­ing the com­pu­ta­tion of the arrange­ments where sick leave is in­volved on cer­tain amounts, so it is those kinds of things and the avail­abil­i­ty of those records that might have lent it­self to the dif­fi­cul­ty that has tak­en us to where we are now.” 

Hinds al­so con­firmed that ef­forts were be­ing made to as­sist al­most 200 re­tired of­fi­cers who have not re­ceived their pen­sion and gra­tu­ity en­ti­tle­ments.

Hinds not­ed that re­tirees of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force, as well as those from the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion, af­fect­ed by de­lays in the pay­ment of the pen­sion or gra­tu­ity are al­so on the Gov­ern­ment’s radar for in­ter­ven­tion.