NUGFW to help Grimes get back lost monies

NATIONAL Union of Government and Federated Workers Trade Union (NUGFW) President Robert Giuseppi offered to help Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) CEO Errol Grimes recover any monies he may have lost when his salary was cut from $50,000 to $36,000.

The NUGFW leader also described WASA as “a bomb waiting to explode” and said his union was prepared to take industrial action to resolve outstanding labour issues there. Addressing a news conference at NUGFW headquarters yesterday, Giuseppi wondered whether recent reports over the exact compensation package for Grimes was one of the reasons why so many issues at WASA were being left on the back burner. “We can’t understand how you could pay a worker and then take back his pay,” he said. Commenting that Grimes was on some kind of  “stress leave”, Giuseppi advised Grimes to “come directly to the NUGFW and we will put a case for loss of earnings”. “No kind of employer could get away with such mad action,” he declared.

Public Utilities Minister Rennie Dumas indicated last week that Grimes’ monthly salary was $36,000 and not $50,000. The NUGFW president also claimed “the new Board is trying to pave the way for privatisation of WASA”. Giuseppi declared that several issues affecting daily rated workers at the company were being ignored while the matters of monthly-rated workers are being speedily addressed. He said the workers are calling on the union to “sound the war bells at WASA” and the NUGFW was prepared to resort to industrial action if necessary. “Some describe it as wildcat strikes but we do not describe it as such,” Giuseppi stated. The NUGFW leader added that WASA was in clear violation of the Industrial Relations Act by not meeting with the union on a regular basis.

Giuseppi said the health sector was a horse of a different colour because the NUGFW could not take strike action. However, he claimed a similar treatment of workers was taking place within the Regional Health Authorities (RHAs). “It is an orchestrated move by elements in the public sector to frustrate workers,” Giuseppi alleged. He reminded reporters that unlike the Medical Professionals Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MPATT), NUGFW is a recognised bargaining unit for some 1,000 daily-rated workers within the RHAs.