Caroni VSEP ruling — Victory for whom?

THE Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago has ruled that Caroni (1975) Limited failed to negotiate in good faith with the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union (ATSGWTU) on the controversial Caroni VSEP.

However questions remain as to who actually won yesterday’s ruling. In delivering the court’s judgment, Industrial Court Vice-President Gladys Gafoor said four of the court’s five-member panel found Caroni to be in breach of Section 40 (1) of the Industrial Relations Act for failing to negotiate in good faith with the ATSGWTU and ordered both parties to meet within five days of the ruling and report their progress to the court on July 10. She said on that date, the court will rule whether the maximum fine of $4,000 should be imposed on Caroni and the May 28 injunction filed by the union to stop the VSEP remains in effect until July 10. The lone dissenting judge Lloyd Elcock agreed with the July 10 hearing but said both sides should meet “with the stipulation that in any event the injunction shall not continue beyond July 10, 2003 so that if they are not able to reach and agreement on any or all of these matters by that date, the company shall be at liberty to proceed with the implementation of its VSEP.” In giving the court’s ruling, Gafoor also indicated that the Caroni VSEP was not flawed in any way.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, ATSGWTU President-General Rudranath Indarsingh described the ruling as “a landmark victory” for trade unions and working class people in the country. He declared that Government would now be forced to conduct the restructuring of the local sugar industry in a transparent and accountable manner. Indarsingh reiterated that his union was not opposed to Caroni’s restructuring and maintained that Government was wrong to leave the ATSGWTU out of the process. He declined to say whether he was disappointed that the court did not impose the $4,000 fine on Caroni. However Agriculture Minister John Rahael said Governnment had no position on the ruling since it was waiting on advice from its attorneys. The Minister told reporters after yesterday’s Parliamentary sitting, that if the VSEP route could not be travelled, the alternative would be to implement the collective agreement and retrench Caroni’s daily-paid workers. He said with no work currenly going on at Caroni, the daily-paid workers’ jobs were now redundant. Hinting that some action could take place next week, Rahael lamented: “I think this is very unfortunate because I don’t think all of this is in the benefit of the workers.” The Minister added that Caroni’s monthly-paid workers have already accepted their VSEP packages and would receive their monies later this month.