NATUC General Secretary James Lambert said if proper consultation on the issue of mandatory vaccination does not take place by mid-January, the union will take further action against the government.

He called on the Attorney General to hold proper consultations with trade unions on the Prime Minister's announcement that public servants who are not vaccinated by mid-January will be sent on furlough. The Attorney General said on Tuesday only those with medical exemptions would be exempt from what the unions are calling a vaccine mandate.

Speaking at a virtual media briefing, Lambert said the organisation and its affiliated unions did not attend the meeting scheduled with the Attorney General for Wednesday because it had been called too quickly.

“We have taken a conscientious decision that all the affiliates of NATUC, under the guise of consultation by the Attorney General – we are not attending the meeting. We are saying, give us something proper, give us a few days, let us look at it with our legal minds.

"We are not objecting to it in its totality, of meeting with the agents of the Attorney General or the government or the Prime Minister, but we are not accepting last night for today. We are not dogs, we are not animals, we have a well-constituted organisation, and we will operate within the framework of our organisation.”

Lambert also said he was appalled at the disrespect meted out to trade union leaders when they went to meet with the Prime Minister on Wednesday morning.

“We had to go down Serpentine Road and go through the carpark: you could no longer pass through the front entrance to Whitehall, as we have been doing over the years. And the most disrespectful (thing was), when the secretary went to deliver the letter, after speaking to the police, a messenger came to take the letter that was delivered. This is the most distasteful, dictatorial – even in the days of empires we never had such a thing in TT.”

Lambert said while the unions are aware that something has to be done about the surge of covid19 cases and deaths, the government has gone about the situation the wrong way.

“You have to remember that the workers that have organised with the various trade unions have a collective agreement that governs the terms and conditions of their employment, and while I’m saying that the Cabinet and the executive of TT and the government supersedes the collective agreement, that is something to be considered, to be disciplined. And we are of the view that some sort of consultation should be taking place.”

He said the measure is the latest of a series of attacks the government has made against the unions since 2015, including non-payment of backpay and stopping negotiations, filling vacancies and recruiting public-sector workers.

“The government is the largest employer in TT. Is it that you are targeting workers who are employed in the public sector? Is it that we are the ones spreading this pandemic virus only, that is government workers who will spread it, so you are saying that you speak about s