Tag Archives: Industrial Court

From the onset I wish to indicate that I hold no brief for either the outgoing office holder or the newly appointed President of the Industrial Court. However, as an industrial relations practitioner I wish to indicate that without any transparency on what transpired in this instance a lot of …

“[…] What do the employers and the one percent want? The objective is to maximise their profits by minimising their labour costs; by demoralising their workforce through retrenchment, wage suppression and the cutting back of hard-won benefits. “[…] Ninety percent or more of the matters that are decided in the Industrial …

“[…] During the Petrotrin shutdown saga, the OWTU actually offered to take a 15% wage cut in order to save jobs. The result? All, all, all workers were sent home. “The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) settled with TSTT for 5% over a five-year period 2014–2019. How many jobs were saved? …

“[…] For many decades, T&T’s highly productive energy sector funded disproportionately high standards of living in its non-energy sectors, including the public service. However, production in the energy sector has been in decline since 2010, masked temporarily by extraordinary recent increases in energy prices.  “[…] In such difficult circumstances, governments …

The Industrial Court delivered a judgement on 18 February 2022 and ruled that it would be too expensive for T&TEC to pay any increased salaries at this time. As such the workers at the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) were not awarded any salary increases for the period 2015 …

“[…] Employers, including state enterprises, […] are retrenching their workforce of both unionised and non-unionised employees and hiring labour-supply contractors, to provide low-wage workers (mostly temporary unsecured, non-benefit workers)—thereby greatly reducing their labour costs.  “Many refuse to pay NIS, placing this critical retirement, sickness and injury benefit system in jeopardy. …

“[…] In Faris Al-Rawi’s upside-down world, a worker is sent home by an employer in an effort to coerce the worker into accepting the employer’s terms and conditions; and if the worker does not accept, she is deemed to have abandoned the job or been dismissed.  “In actual practice, if …

In 2001, Enron—named the ‘most innovative company ’ by Fortune magazine for six consecutive years—collapsed.  Enron’s chairman and chief executive officer, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, were two arrogant and belligerent men who believed they were the ‘smartest guys in the room’. They believed that, through their sheer cleverness and …

“[…] Minister Imbert has […] set the stage for entrenching the austerity programme the IMF has long been advising: privatisation, deregulation, the reduction of the public sector, wage suppression. “This austerity, of course, involves the weakening of the trade unions through the hiving off of the health sector, a de …

“[…] The period of layoff as generally outlined by the industrial court is a maximum of three months. If there is no resumption of work, a worker is entitled to claim his severance pay… “[…]What we have witnessed since the pandemic, is that employers have been in breach of the …

“[…] Gene Miles’ evidence before Karl De La Bastide-led commission of enquiry exposed corruption in very high places. The one-man commissioner, Karl De La Bastide, recommended that all evidence recorded at the enquiry ‘should be, without delay, transmitted to the Public Service Commission’ to enable enforcing of ‘Disciplinary Laws of …

“[…] Public sector workers, including health care workers, teachers and public servants, have not had a wage increase since 2013. They have not even had the full retroactive payments due to them and owed to them for more than six years. “The widespread use of the contract system has turned …