Workers and former employees of the National Insurance Board of Trinidad and Tobago (NIBTT) are set to receive back pay and arrears.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in a statement to the Lower House of Parliament on Friday, said that for more than a decade, employees of the NIBTT have been waiting in frustration and deprivation for what was lawfully theirs.
“A legally binding Collective Agreement, entered into between the Public Services Association of Trinidad and Tobago (PSA) and the NIBTT, covered the period January 1st 2014 to December 31st 2016.”
The Prime Minister noted that the agreement was solemnly settled, duly signed, and lawfully registered binding on all parties with the full force of law. She blamed the former PNM administration for deliberately blocking the NIBTT from honouring its obligations to workers.
“In doing so, they denied 600 current employees and 350 past employees their lawful entitlements for many years, effectively withholding salary increases that had been due for over 12 years. They placed political interference above the law. They sacrificed justice on the altar of expediency, and in the process they robbed thousands of our citizens of their rightful salary adjustments and arrears.”
Mrs. Persad-Bissessar said the Government’s action is not only about back pay and arrears, but rather about reinstating the dignity of workers, reaffirming their humanity, and upholding the rule of law as the bedrock of T&T’s democracy.
“My Cabinet has directed the NIBTT to do the following: To implement the agreed salary adjustments with immediate effect. To facilitate the full and prompt payment of all outstanding arrears to affected employees without delay. This is not merely the execution of a contract. This is the restoration of justice and fulfilment of our Workers’ Agenda. And this is, I am proud to say, the delivery of another campaign promise.”