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THE LABOUR movement appears to be unmoved by calls for it to return to the National Tripartite Advisory Council (NTAC). The National Trade Union Centre (Natuc), the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN) all resigned from NTAC on March 11.
NTAC chairman, Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, subsequently urged the three labour organisations to rejoin the council in the best interest of the country.
Asked on Saturday if there were any other efforts by Government to persuade the labour movement to rejoin NTAC, Natuc general secretary Michael Annisette replied, "Not to my knowledge, other than the formal statements made by former minister of labour Jennifer Baptiste-Primus and the chairman of the committee (Robinson-Regis)."
[caption id="attachment_878436" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Camille Robinson-Regis -[/caption]
Asked what it would take for labour to rejoin NTAC, Annisette referred to the signed March 11 resignation letter which the labour movement gave to the council. He said the contents of the letter were self-explanatory.
On the same question, Natuc president Watson Duke said, "All three federations are now speaking as one and such a question will be responded by all three federations."
In its letter, the three labour organisations said, "We firmly believe that our continued participation in NTAC would be sacrilegious to the aims and objectives of the trade union movement. As such, after long and careful deliberations we have come to the inescapable conclusion that we must remove ourselves from NTAC with immediate effect."
They claimed they "are now of the firm belief that the Government now feels that they have a template for getting rid of trade union representation and collective agreements at state enterprises."
In a statement earlier last week, Robinson-Regis said NTAC was an independent institution but Cabinet reserves the prerogative to select the chair.
She also said, "The withdrawal of the trade union sector from this august body could not have come at a more inopportune time. In doing so, they have denied themselves the self-satisfaction of being advised first-hand of the rewards of their own labour, many of which are about to bear fruit."
Robinson-Regis said these included making recommendations to Cabinet to enhance productivity and the work ethic and to amend the Industrial Relations Act and the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act, discussing amendments to the Workmen’s Compensation Act, helping to craft the covid19 public-sector workplace policy and recommendations on covid19 special and pandemic leave, and helping to establish an independent committee to resolve outstanding public-sector negotiations.
 
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