Sickout shuts down TTT

FEARS OF retrenchment triggered protest action by workers at the National Broadcasting Network (NBN) yesterday, just one day after it was officially announced that the company will wind up operations on April 30. Although they were told by the broadcast company’s management that they would be offered enhanced Voluntary Separation of Employment Packages (VSEP) and will be eligible for employment in a new company that will replace NBN, the workers said they had information that they would be retrenched and there was no intention to offer them VSEP. Hardest hit by the protest was Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) where production staff called in sick, forcing the cancellation of popular talk show “TT This Morning.” Supervisors and the operations manager tried to take up the slack but they were unable to air the morning show and had to resort to CNN news programmes.

NBN’s management met with the three unions representing the staff on Wednesday to update them on the revised terms and conditions of the enhanced VSEP. Less than 20 workers attended the meeting, sources told Newsday. Management officials assured that all workers will be offered the package on February 12. In addition, the unions were told all employees will be eligible for employment in the company which will replace NBN. The separation package for all of the company’s 235 employees will cost $33 million. According to reports, the unions advised employees not to accept the VSEP offer. As a  result junior staffers from several departments, including technical and engineering and news, called in sick, virtually shutting down the company. The disgruntled workers later staged a protest outside Whitehall. NBN’s general manager Ken Attale, in a statement issued after Wednesday’s meeting, said the new company replacing NBN will be 100 percent Government owned.

Attale said Cabinet’s decision to close the company and bring on stream a new broadcasting company on a fully competitive basis, includes the offer of an “enhanced VSEP, which will be formally offered on February 12 with an acceptance deadline of March 12.” He said  the package was inclusive of severance payments based on existing collective agreements and an enhancement over and above the separation at an average of 25 percent will be applied, with the level varying according to the age of each individual. A further five percent on the total enhancement payment will also be given as a consideration of the new union agreements which are not yet finalised. Attale said a cash payment will be made for vacation leave accrued up to the date of separation and pension plans will be remain intact, with a Government guarantee that all plans are fully paid up at the time of the closure. He added that persons 60 years and over may opt for early retirement pensions with full benefits.

Attale assured that the separation will be carried out “in the most humane manner possible” with career, financial and change management counselling for up to one year and participation in any retraining programmes in which employees may wish to register. The new company replacing NBN will be inviting applications for staff, once consultants finalise the operational structure. The unions representing workers are the Senior Staff Association (SSA), Electronic Media Union of Trinidad and Tobago (EMUTT) and the Union of Commercial and Industrial Workers (UCIW). 

NBN Workers: Don’t treat us like dogs

By Clint Chan Tack

NATIONAL BROADCASTING NETWORK (NBN) workers yesterday accused Government of trying to discard NBN like “a disposable razor” and claimed that none of them will be allowed to interview for positions in the entity that will succeed the State-owned news company. Speaking with reporters outside Whitehall, where a handful of NBN workers had assembled to protest a decision to wind-up company operations by April 30, Electronic Media Union of Trinidad and Tobago (EMUTT) president Anthony Garcia declared: “If you are sending us home on April 30 why are you treating us as dogs. NBN is a throw away. It’s like a disposable razor. You use us and then throw us away without any kind of recompense.

“We don’t know what the new company is. We know one thing... that nobody from NBN will be coming into the new company.” Garcia claimed that NBN’s management handled the negotiations for employees’ VSEP and the collective agreement. “It seems that our proposals were thrown out of the window because yesterday they called a meeting and they handed us a document and informed us in no uncertain terms that this is the final document from the Cabinet and this is what is being offered and it is non-negotiable. Also protesting outside Whitehall yesterday was a group of workers from the Blind Welfare Association. All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union (ATSGWTU) first vice-president Sylvester Maharaj said the workers had been trying to get a collective agreement signed for the last three years.