The Communications Workers Union (CWU) has described as “misleading”, the Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales announcement that TSTT made a turnaround last year which resulted in management and staff sharing in a $6 million bonus payout.
CWU Secretary General Clyde Elder said while the minister wanted the public to believe staff benefited greatly, that was not the case.
Elder wants TSTT to pay retrenched workers the back pay and severance they are owed.
“You can’t pay us who you owe, who you have a debt to, but you could pay yourself and others a bonus who you do not have a debt to. That doesn’t make any sense to me. It simply means that they want to line their pockets at the expense of the unionised workers,” he said.
“Is it really equity or is it an avenue to make payments to the managers and to try to give a little pittance, a little crumbs to the junior staff and senior staff so that they wouldn’t say they didn’t get money too?”
Elder also pointed out that TSTT workers were not offered VSEP as claimed by Gonzales in Parliament on Wednesday. Instead, he said they were forced out of the company and given no choice during the company’s retrenchment exercises.
Elder noted that out of the $6 million bonus, junior and senior staff got no more than $1,500 and $2,000 each, which combined did not amount to more than $1 million, leaving TSTT’s management with the bulk of the bonus money.