Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus says the sudden closure of the Point Lisas-based ArcelorMittal is a “real tragedy.”
The company announced its closure in T&T yesterday, one day after it was fined by the Industrial Court for the manner in which it laid off more than 600 employees in December last year.
Questioned about the development as she entered Parliament yesterday, Baptiste-Primus said the move meant the company “was not able to identify a viable option..”
Baptiste-Primus said filing for insolvency was a judicial process and that she was in the process of “responding to the company to enquire of the company what type of wind-up process is this and who are its creditors.”
She said she received two letters from the company dated March 8, describing it as a rather strange coincidence.
She said the first letter informed her of the proposed closure of operations and the need for a meeting. Baptiste-Primus told reporters she was unable to attend the proposed meeting for March 9 because of her schedule.
Baptiste-Primus said she was keen to know “what will be the status of the workers’ separation benefits.” She added that she was of the opinion that “other creditors may have priority over the payment of benefits to the worker.”
She said she was to receive further advice on the matter from Finance Minister Colm Imbert, adding that she had initial discussions on the matter with Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.
Helping the workers
The minister said the issue was a troubling one, but after looking at it for several hours a ten-point plan was developed to assist retrenched workers.
She said, “A critical aspect of that plan is meeting with the financial sector.”
She was expected to meet separately with the president of the Credit Union League and the International Labour Organisation and representatives of the UN/UNDP coordinator yesterday, and was arranging meetings with the president of the Bankers Association and other financial institutions.
“We all have to put our heads together to see how best a humane approach can be adopted,” she said.
Noting that the affected workers have loans, mortgages and other bills to pay, she said she would be meeting with the financial stakeholders to determine windows of opportunities for the retrenched workers.
A retrenchment register is among the plans, the minister added, “to capture those workers (and), in addition to that we will be meeting with employers to match skills with the retrenched workers to identify alternative sources of employment.”
The ministry's Cooperative Department will also be brought on stream to assist the workers who may want to pool their resources.
She did not agree with a view expressed by Opposition MP Rudranath Indarsingh that the action by the company was an indictment on the Industrial Court. She said she had ultimate faith in the court, adding that the decision to shut down operations “was not taken last night.”
She said following yesterday’s decision by the company, “the workers clearly end up being the losers because they are being separated but not walking away with their separation benefits.”