00:00While a number of trade union groups were engaged in protest,
00:04another one of the trade unions which have aligned with the government
00:07has seen their allegiance bear fruit.
00:11PowerGen and the Oilfield Workers Trade Union, OWTU,
00:14have reached a historic 66.1 million wage settlement,
00:19bringing closure to nine and a half years of outstanding wage negotiations.
00:26Mr. Speaker, nine and a half years.
00:28Nine and a half years of unresolved negotiations under the former P&M administration.
00:34But today, through meaningful dialogue and decisive action,
00:39we have delivered a settlement that puts workers first.
00:43The agreement covers the outstanding bargaining period.
00:46Listen to this one, Mr. Speaker.
00:48The outstanding bargaining periods 2016 to 17 and 2018 to 2020,
00:54when our friends opposite wing government and sat on their hands delivering absolutely nothing to workers at PowerGen.
01:02The minister did not state whether this settlement has any non-cash provisions,
01:07but he did indicate that workers will have money in hand before Christmas.
01:12Mr. Speaker, providing a 9% cumulative wage increase over five years,
01:17representing, Mr. Speaker, this increase.
01:20This benefits approximately 150 eligible workers with outstanding payments scheduled to be made by the 15th of December,
01:292026, which means more workers will be going home with money in their pockets
01:33under Kamala Pesabies' administration for Christmas, 2026.
01:38TNTech workers are also set to receive outstanding cost-of-living payments beginning December.
01:45These representative bodies who have negotiated and bargained for OWTU,
01:51through OWTU, for PowerGen and TNTech workers,
01:55did not rush days before general election to accept 0%, 2%, 4%.
02:01Today, they received their just due under Kamala Pesabies' administration.
02:07Mr. Speaker, there is no fake outrage when the UNC government is in power with some of the unions.
02:14We can't say that for all of the unions.
02:16Vanessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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