The Government yesterday moved one step closer to winding up the operations of the Tourism Development Company (TDC), after the company issued its 111 workers with notices of retrenchment.
The workers received the letters following a staff meeting at TDC’s Maritime Centre, Barataria headquarters.
Addressing media after the distribution of the letters, Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) secretary general Clyde Elder said workers were given 45 days notice of their retrenchment, which ends on September 28.
Elder said: “It means effectively that while they are not asked to report for work after today, they remain employees until September 28. During the notice period they will continue to enjoy all of the terms and conditions of employment that normally apply.”
He noted that the process complied with the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act and the decisions of the Industrial Court and Court of Appeal, which had both criticised the company over its move to retrench the workers without consulting the CWU earlier this year.
“During the period, the union and the company will engage in discussion with a view to either getting a better package or if we can’t get that at least we will get an assurance that people are going to be transferred into the new entity,” Elder said.
Asked whether the company had indicated the type of severance packages each worker would get, Elder said no.
“We don’t know. What we know is the act provides for two weeks pay for every year service for the first four years and three weeks pay for every year after four years,” Elder said.
While some of the workers bore melancholy expressions on their faces as they cleared their offices of personal belongings and said goodbye to their former co-workers, most were expressionless as they said they had prepared themselves for the eventuality based on Government’s position on the company’s future.
Asked about the workers’ previous concerns over non-payment of salaries for July, Elder said the issue was addressed yesterday following a meeting with Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young last Friday.
“We are confident that if the discussions continue under Young they would be fruitful,” Elder said, as he criticised Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe for her handling of the situation earlier this year.
“She (Cudjoe) met with us once, more or less as a token kind of something, but it was not with the intention of having anything settled. We had one meeting with Young and because of his approach we are able to have a way forward in this situation.”
In March, Cudjoe announced a Cabinet decision to close the TDC and replace it with two separate entities to deal with tourism in T&T. On May 4, however, the CWU applied for the injunction seeking to restrain the TDC from terminating the workers’ contracts until the determination of an industrial relations complaint filed in the Industrial Court over the failure to consult with the union over shutting down the company.
The union had claimed the workers were improperly approached by the company’s management with severance packages before it engaged in talks with the union. The injunction was eventually upheld by the Court of Appeal.