Industrial relations expert hits Petrotrin handling of settlement

Courtney McNish questioned how a trade union could force a company to the negotiating table to negotiate a current agreement while a previous one was awaiting conciliation at the industrial court. “The trade union outfox; outsmart; outthink big ... these are people with Masters and PHDs running the country and they let Roget get them to go to the table and talk about a current period before the court. Take me to court then for failing to meet and treat...I am not negotiating,” he said. On January 9, 2017 after some thirty hours of negotiations, Petrotrin and the OWTU reached an interim agreement on a five percent wage increase for the period 2011-2014 while the two sides were also negotiating an industrial agreement for 2014-2017. McNish said he was not upset at the agreement that was reached but he was upset that a company as important as Petrotrin could get itself into a position where it began negotiating for a current period while a previous one was outstanding at the Industrial Court.

Mc Nish was the feature speaker at a seminar, “The secret to successful negotiations in collective bargaining” held yesterday at the headquarters of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce at Westmoorings.

He told participants that a union should not be expected to accept a company’s response that it cannot pay a benefit but that the company should be prepared to show its books to prove its position. He added that inability to pay is not an argument on its own. He said human resource professionals must have sources which can tap into what is happening in the workforce as this would be useful in informing them whether the interests of the workers are in keeping with those of the union. He said the union might have national objectives which are not the same as those of the workforce.

Mc Nish said the company should always be in settlement mode and some signs that the union is ready to settle would include the withdrawal of new items proposed and when the two parties are between one to two points of settlement. He said once the settlement has been reached the negotiating team should break the meeting and have the terms of settlement typed up and signed. During a panel discussion, Industrial Relations Consultant Kawal Singh said it was most important that the company maintain a social relationship with the union. He said the company often begins with the view that the union is bad or evil but once the union achieves majority status in the company it is like a marriage - the union is there for life. He said that 90 percent of the time when companies build good relationships with the union, they never end up at the Industrial Court.

He said that employers are at a disadvantage in negotiations because while trade unions are talking and strategising with each other, employers hardly ever talk to each other.