Cabinet backs PM on ‘roles’ at talks with trade unions

Cabinet has endorsed the views expressed by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on the roles of negotiating parties during her talks with trade unions last Tuesday. Public Administration Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, during Thursday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, said the unions raised the matter of the role of the Public Sector Negotiating Committee (PSNC) during talks with the PM. She said Persad-Bissessar told the unions the PSNC was disbanded and Cabinet appointed an inter-ministerial team to assist the Finance Minister in negotiations between the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) and trade unions representing the public sector. She said when the People’s Partnership took office last year it was indicated the Government would not continue with the PSNC. Seepersad-Bachan said it was felt that the PSNC was interfering with the bargaining process in the public sector.

She said the trade unions, which held talks with the PM last Tuesday, felt the team was operating in the same manner as the PSNC. Seepersad-Bachan said Cabinet also agreed that the role of the CPO remaind as that of chief negotiator on behalf of the Government in negotiations with the public service.
Further, negotiations involving employees of State enterprises would be guided by the directors of the boards of those enterprises, the minister said. The board would, in turn, be guided by the State enterprise’s capacity to pay (demands of workers), she said. On Thursday, Cabinet also approved the establishment of a nursing training facility. Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Fazal Karim said there were 2,640 vacancies for registered nurses. He said several other projects to upgrade the health sector were on stream as Government moved to quickly improve the health sector.