00:00With postal workers having gone 13 years without salary increases, the Postal Workers Union
00:12is demanding that T.T. Post honour the recommendations of a long-approved job evaluation exercise.
00:19The undertaking by the government then was to have an external party come in and steer
00:26a steering committee to deal with jobs at T.T. Post. That was undertaken. Millions of
00:32dollars spent on that undertaking. But however, what we have not realised from it is the increases
00:40or adjustments in workers' salaries.
00:41With another job evaluation exercise now due and several bargaining periods outstanding,
00:47the union is calling on T.T. Post and the government by extension to do right by the
00:52workers.
00:53Therefore, we query which period T.T. Post proposes to have a revised collective agreement.
01:00Or will it be a proposal that there will be a collective agreement for each period?
01:03In regards to the 2014-2016 period, we would have proposed a 20% increase, separate and
01:10apart, to make it absolutely clear to the media and to the national community. Separate
01:15and apart from this long-outstanding issue of the job evaluation. So we would have proposed
01:20a 20% increase for the employees and we would have also made mention of a 2007 allowance
01:26that is still outdated.
01:28The union is scheduled to meet with T.T. Post on December 2nd, as T.T. Post has received
01:34official correspondence from the Ministry of Public Utilities and the CPO on the way
01:39forward. Chairman of T.T. Post, Michael Seals, is seeking to assure the workers that the
01:45outcome will be in their favour.
01:47When they meet with the union, they always sit around the wrong table. The union will
01:53have their position, management will have their position, and management position is
01:57guided by the CPO guidelines, which is quite clear to them as to what they can do, what
02:04they cannot do. And that will be fleshed out when they both meet at the table. And from
02:09my understanding, it will be in the best interest of the workers.
02:14Okay, so that means that the state has given the go-ahead for the payment of the 18.6%?
02:20I would but be able to say that that is something that has to be settled at the table. To say
02:26anything other than that is to tell them, okay, this is what the CPO says, so there
02:29will be no negotiation or no need for any negotiation. Those things will be settled
02:34when both the union and management meet at the table.
02:37Renessa Cutting, TB6 News.
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