00:00 Many private security officers are underpaid, overworked and just don't know where to turn to for help.
00:08 But President of the Air State Police Association of Trinidad and Tobago, Derek Richardson, says
00:14 there are avenues that workers in this sector can take and he encouraged them to stand up for themselves.
00:21 All unrepresented officers join a union. Join a union. Do not allow your employer to victimize you or intimidate you into joining a union.
00:36 It is your protection. It is the only way you can get your matters concerning employment addressed is to join a union.
00:45 He spoke with TV6 News following a story we aired recently about a 67-year-old primary school security guard
00:54 who has worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for consecutive months at a time living out of the guard booth.
01:02 The officer claimed he and his colleagues had not been paid the last 8 months of their salaries
01:09 and even so, their company has for years paid a flat rate of $15 per hour.
01:15 Richardson says the owner of the company explained to him the reason why his officers are paid below minimum wage.
01:23 He indicated to me that there is a problem and that problem emanates from the fact that the government would have raised the minimum wage
01:33 and then the government would have refused to apply the $3 increase to the contracts that they would have engaged in at the Ministry of Education.
01:43 This happens with the state police officers too, not just security officers.
01:48 And not party to the negotiations that take place between the government and the employer.
01:56 So whatever adjustment has to be made, has to be made at that level and the officers should not suffer.
02:04 More than that, he says some aren't even paid overtime despite two separate court rulings in favour of workers.
02:14 There were judgments coming out of the industrial court in Tobago in 2015 which says clearly that security officers are entitled to overtime after 8 hours
02:28 and as recent as 2023 in our judgment with HALA and the OWTU where security officers are in fact entitled to overtime after 8 hours, 4 hours time and a half and down the road.
02:40 Richardson says not paying overtime is as illegal as paying below the minimum wage.
02:46 And while his union does not represent non-perceptive officers, there are unions unrepresented officers can join.
02:54 But it isn't the only way to get redress.
02:58 So we want to direct them to go to the Ministry, go to the Inspectorate Division and present to them that they can go to the company
03:05 and let them make sure that the company proves that they are in fact paying the minimum wage.
03:11 These issues can be fought in court.
03:14 But there is another matter, he says, which needs legislative intervention.
03:19 The EPA president says workers in this sector are not entitled by law to be paid annual or sick leave.
03:27 He says back in 1994, there was a sectoral order which gave security officers access to such leave.
03:35 But it was rescinded a year later and remains that way to date.
03:40 In 2022, they wrote Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on the matter.
03:45 He would have written back to us and he said that he sent it to the Attorney General and the Minister of Legal Affairs and the National Security Minister.
03:54 That was in 2022. Since then, we have heard nothing.
03:58 We wrote to the Attorney General asking them to address this issue.
04:03 It is inhuman to think that you want to work people for 48 hours, 24 hours, 16 hours, 12 hours per day
04:11 and they do not have a legal obligation to pay 14 days sick leave or give them paid annual leave.
04:19 Richardson says he hopes that somewhere, sometime soon, someone in authority hears the cries of these officers
04:27 and acts to have the law updated to afford these basic rights to these minimum wage workers.
04:34 Sindhi, Raghubaati Kasing, TV6 News.
04:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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