A week after five unions had their negotiations brought before the Industrial Court after a breakdown, the Amalgamated Workers Union (AWU) has signed off on a 14 per cent wage increase for two periods.
At the Ministry of Labour, Duke Street, Port of Spain, on Tuesday, AWU officials signed an agreement with Bermudez Biscuit Company, a subsidiary of the Bermudez Group Ltd.
The group comprises Kiss Baking Company, Bermudez, Holiday Foods, Wibisco, Excelsior and Soldanza.
The settlement is for two three-year bargaining periods, 2018-2021 and 2021-2024. The first period was settled for eight per cent and the second for six per cent.
While the agreement is for the Bermudez Biscuit Company, only daily, weekly and hourly paid workers will benefit from the agreement, as they are unionised. Those affected include warehouse attendants, sanitation workers and machine operators totalling between 250 and 300 employees.
The union, which agreed to the government’s four per cent wage increase for sanitation workers at the Port of Spain City Corporation in August for the period 2014-2016 and 2017-2019, was chastised by other unions for accepting what they considered a low offer.
That four per cent rejection caused Finance Minister Colm Imbert to refer the negotiations to the Industrial Court. The five unions before the court are: Fire Service Association, Prison Officers Association, Police Social and Welfare Association , Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) and the National Union of Government & Federated Workers (NUGFW).
Asked about this at Tuesday’s signing, general secretary for the AWU Cassandra Tommy-Dabreo said the signing is a win for the union, although it is far less than for previous periods. For the period 2015-2018 the union agreed to a 15 per cent wage increase and the previous period was 19 per cent.
“How I feel about it? It is a plus for me, and I would personalise it, as a female general secretary in the trade union movement that is dominated by male, and especially tall strapping males.
"So the fact of the matter is, it is a plus. Yes, we would have wanted more, but I will take from my comrade that we still have the glass, and we still have the glass on hand and going forward, we will always want the glass to be filled.”
While workers expressed disappointment in the continued drop from 19 to six per cent in a bargaining period, Tommy-Dabreo said they understood the economic times facing the country and accepted the overall 14 per cent.
The union submitted a proposal for the return of cost of living allowances (COLA), profit sharing and heat allowances, but those were not agreed to.
Group industrial relations manager Hashim Al-Mujaahid said the agreement was to bring the biscuit company in alignment with the other companies regarding salaries. He said the increased salary and backpay will be paid to employees on or before the end of the year and will not be part of the company’s Christmas bonus, if the companies decided to grant them.
Asked about the settlement fo
