Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan says that the buck stops with the Chief Personnel Officer with respect to any agreement the Port Authority made with the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union.
The Minister was responding to a question on whether the apparent impasse involving the Port and the Union requires his intervention.
00:00The industrial action by workers at the Port of Port of Spain under the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union is intermittent.
00:07Over the past month, the Port Authority has had to issue a number of bulletins informing its stakeholders and customers of unplanned shortfalls in labour affecting its operations.
00:18On Monday, the Port said all areas of operations were impacted as workers showed up at a job site but withheld their labour.
00:27Many, including those within the business community and most recently the Port Authority's Chairman Lyle Alexander, have expressed concern about the possible economic fallout for the country.
00:38The question of ministerial intervention was posed to Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinhanan during the earlier stages of the protest action.
00:46But failing an agreement on the way forward between the Port Authority and the SWWTU, TV6 News again sought a response from Sinhanan
00:55while making mention of the intervention by Finance Minister Coleman-Byrd last week in relation to protesting pilots at Caribbean Airlines, which led to a resolution.
01:16It's basically the same thing. The Minister of Finance should have given the CPO the instructions to have the conversation. That has already been done. The CPO has already made offers to them.
01:28So they do not want to accept the offer. And that is where that negotiation will go on between them and the CPO.
01:37Sinhanan says there was already ministerial intervention to get to the point of the negotiations between the trade union and the CPO.
01:46You have to understand there are different unions on the court. Some of them have already accepted the CPO's offer. Some of them have already accepted and gotten paid for taking periods. This is one union on the court.
02:01As for the SWWTU's objection to the CPO's reneging of a 12% offer the Port Authority signed off on with the SWWTU, Sinhanan tells us the CPO has the final say.
02:14All agreements have to be subjected to the approval of the CPO. So they can make recommendations. But everything has to be finalized by the CPO and then it becomes an agreement.
02:31This is something way before my time and before this government and this board. So if the proper procedures were not followed, I can't speak to that. The CPO will have to speak to that.
02:47On the question of what can be done to circumvent problems caused by the impasse, the minister says it's in the hands of the Port Commissioners and he expresses confidence that they will do their best to restore a sense of normalcy.
03:01Yesterday we had some restart of some of the services. Today we have some as well. Not everything has been restarted but from my information there are several aspects of the port that is up and running. People are carrying containers and things like that. There's one aspect of it that is not operated.
03:19I had a long meeting with the chairman of the port this morning and he indicated to me that he will be addressing some of those concerns raised by the union.
03:29Minister Sinanan calls for good sense to prevail saying what is transpiring can have dire consequences for the country in the long run. Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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