OWTU president general Ancel Roget is calling on Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales to confirm the employment status (make permanent) of over 200 temporary workers at the TT Electricity Commission (T&TEC).

He claimed some of these temporary workers have been at the commission for over ten years.

He made the call on Monday while hand-delivering a letter to Gonzales’ office in Port of Spain.

"Why not confirm the temporary workers, many of whom are working in vacant positions? If you keep hiring contract workers, you will make the permanent work force smaller and make smaller, their ability to perform excellent work. We call on the minister and T&TEC management to confirm them."

The letter to Gonzales called for the temporary workers to be made permanent and also called for an urgent meeting with the minister to discuss several outstanding issues.

Roget claimed a letter was delivered in 2020 to the ministry but since then, nothing was done to address the issues raised in that letter.

“Some of these issues include the pension plan, issues related to covid19, the mandatory way management is treating with temporary and permanent workers, the deterioration of the relationship between management and the recognised majority union, the non-payment of bills by government and its impact on operations, and the unnecessary expansion of contract labour.”

Roget said he could proudly state that T&TEC was a utility that provided a steady and reliable service to its customers. He called on Gonsales to meet with the union urgently so they could move forward amicably.

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