The Ministry of Finance says it made the necessary funds to pay salaries for the month of October 2017 available since last week. The ministry payments were made in accordance with Civil Service Regulation 39, which states that salaries should be paid on the day previous to the last full business day of the month, which was yesterday.
The ministry’s claim came even as Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association president Hayden Stewart said this was the third month nurses employed by the regional health authorities (RHAs) had been paid late without any explanation or apology, adding the association’s attorneys are now looking at sending legal letters to the RHA CEOs and Ministry of Finance.
Stewart said as of midday yesterday, “only one group of workers employed in the NCRHA had been paid through Royal Bank.”
He said the association had sought answers from Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh and he referred them to the Minister of Finance Colm Imbert, but all attempts to get answers from Imbert were unsuccessful.
Stewart said, “We have started speaking with our lawyers, because it is not a favour that they are doing, this is scripted in law. We want to ensure this does not continue and that nurses are paid as they are supposed to, two days before the end of the month.”
Stewart said he could understand a one-off situation but it seemed it had become “a habit and we will take the necessary legal recourse. We want to make sure the ministry obeys the relevant guidelines.”
PSA president Watson Duke said Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex workers were furious they had not been paid.
He said late payment of salaries was in contravention of section 39 of the Public Service Act, adding salaries should have been in the bank either last week or by yesterday morning.
Duke said these “scare tactics” will not force workers into believing that “things are really hard and our jobs are under threat. There is money and there is work. Pay us to do our work.”
TTUTA president Lyndsay Doodhai said his members also complained salaries were late. But he said he was assured by Ministry of Finance officials that teachers should be able to access them this week.
Fire Services Association president Leo Ramkissoon said they were told that “the Minister of Finance only released funding for payment on Friday and the information is between today and up until Wednesday fire officers will get their payments.”