NATUC in talks with IMF

A FOUR-MEMBER delegation from the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) recently met with a two-member delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF delegation, led by Antonio Furtado, Caribbean Division Chief of the Western Hemisphere Department, is in Trinidad and Tobago for two weeks reviewing the country’s economic performance. NATUC general secretary Vincent Cabrera, in a media statement on the meeting, said the IMF delegation was “particularly interested in the industrial relations climate in the country, as well as wage negotiations and the labour market.”

“Specifically, matters discussed included the human rights deficiencies of the Industrial Relations Act, the country’s minimum wage fixing machinery, the absence of successorship legislation, which all pointed to the need for comprehensive reform of labour legislation,” Cabrera said. “Discussions also took place concerning interference in the collective bargaining process by the Public Sector Negotiating Committee, contravention of ILO Convention No 87, wastage in the health sector and contracting out of services.”