Protective services want back pay

At a press conference yesterday, heads of various associations said their members have indicated that they are disenchanted, demotivated, angry, and losing confidence that the outstanding money would not be paid.

President of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) Ceron Richards, president of the Fire Services Association (FSA) Leo Ramkissoon and president of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Social and Welfare Association, Michael Seales chaired the conference at the Fire Services Association’s office in Port-of- Spain, where they said a promise was made to have the outstanding 50 percent of back pay paid by the end of September.

Ramkissoon explained that they have been requesting a meeting with Imbert to discuss when the money will be allocated.

“We have communicated with him requesting a meeting for the protective services to get information officially as to how the money is to be paid and to confirm what was stated in April where they said that the payments would be finalised by September month end,” Ramkissoon said.

He said in order for the payments to take effect at September month end, the money would have had to be allocated before the end of August.

“Without that happening, the officers are seeing that the payments will not be made. We are saying if there are any changes to what was agreed to, the Minister should let the officers know, through some kind of formal communication, as to any changes that may have been put into the public domain, via a media release on April 26,” Ramkissoon explained.

Meanwhile, Richards said Imbert is not living up to the expectation that members of the protection services have.

“We were in dialogue with the minister, and he has given us information that all money will be paid and, to date, the minister remains very ambiguous to whether or not the back pay will be paid in a particular way and within a certain time frame. We are optimistic, we are hoping that the budget, come September, will reveal the facts surrounding all the issues with back pay,” he said.