00:00One day after the protests at the University of the West Indies campus in
00:04Trinidad, an urgent question was posed in the House of Representatives by Cuba
00:09South MP Rujunathan Darsing. Question to the Minister of Education. Will the
00:14Minister inform this House of the urgent measures which have been pursued by the
00:21government to avoid a complete shutdown of the University of the West Indies
00:26St. Augustine campus given the rejection of the government's 2% for the
00:32collective bargaining period 2015 to 2017 by the West Indian West Indies
00:39group of university teachers. Finance Minister Colm Imbert rose to respond to
00:45the opposition MPs question. First let me correct the statement in the question
00:51which sort of implied insinuated or said outright that there will be a total
00:57collapse of the St. Augustine campus. I don't think so. I think that is just an
01:03alarmist wording from the member for Cuba South. The Finance Minister spoke
01:08about what he said had occurred during the UNC-led People's Partnership
01:11Administration. Over the period August 2011 to July 2014, the then Ministerial Committee
01:18under the previous administration approved a 10% adjustment in
01:24compensation for academic and senior staff at the University of the West
01:29Indies represented by the West Indies group of university teachers WGAT. The
01:33Finance Minister said the government has offered the same 4% extended to the
01:37public service and the protective services. I am advised that WGAT refused
01:41to consider the last period 2017 to 2020 and has not accepted the offer for the
01:49period 2014 to 2017. I am told that the WGAT is asking for the following. With
01:57effect from July 2014 8%, with effect from July 2015 another 8% and with
02:05effect from 2016 another 8% a total of 24% for the period 2014 to 2017. Minister
02:14Inbridge said the Union's proposal would cost an estimated additional 78 million
02:19dollars per annum for the UWE St. Augustine campus. MP Andarasinghe said the
02:23negotiations at UWE's campuses in Jamaica and Barbados have been concluded. The
02:28Finance Minister indicated there's a difference where Trinidad and Tobago is
02:32concerned. If we were to accept the proposal from WGAT the back pay would be
02:37701 million dollars as at March 2024. The cost of the 4% offer which we have
02:47offered to everybody else and which has been accepted by most trade unions is
02:53estimated at back pay of 79 million and 12 million in additional recurrent
03:00expenditure and it is no secret the member can pretend otherwise that UWI is
03:05funded by the state with hundreds of millions of dollars in subventions. The
03:10Finance Minister said any settlement of wages at UWE will place the
03:14responsibility on the government and taxpayers to fund the increase.
03:18Jewel Brown TV6 News
Comments