The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has obtained a stay on the retrenchment for 468 Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) workers who were given retrenchment notices by the State-owned company yesterday.
CWU Secretary General Clyde Elder said the union took immediate action by seeking an injunction after receiving a letter from TSTT.
They also received a flash drive containing over 3,400 pages of notices to members that they were effectively retrenched from June 1.
The Union argued that the move by TSTT was not in compliance with the laws of T&T and with proper industrial relations practices, and that the court agreed just before 8 pm on Tuesday to grant the stay of retrenchment.
Elder said the court set June 14 as the day for the continuation of the hearing on the matter and has advised TSTT that it cannot engage in any retrenchment of members of the bargaining units.
He said the union’s argument was that according to the Industrial Relations Act, TSTT needed to give 45 days’ notice of retrenchment, adding although the company sought to pay workers for 45 days in lieu of the time period required for the notice, the union did not accept this to be legal.
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