Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (TSTT) and its recognised majority union, the Communications Workers Union (CWU) have come to an agreement that will see the organisation continue with its restructuring exercise without delay.

Under the terms of the agreement, TSTT will reissue the notices of retrenchment to the 376 unionised workers on May 31, 2022, with the same date (May 31, 2022) but with the last date of employment being July 15, 2022, instead of June 1, 2022, as was stated in the initial letters of separation.

TSTT previously used the June 1 date because the company’s collective agreement allowed for separated employees to leave immediately and receive payment in lieu of the statutory 45 days’ notice. The workers will now remain employees of TSTT until July 15, 2022.

The agreement will not reduce employees’ severance packages in any way.

After four months of consultations with its employees’ unions, on May 31, TSTT issued notices of retrenchment to 403 of its unionised employees advising them that their services were surplus to the needs of the restructured organisation. Retrenchment notices were also issued to 65 of TSTT’s management staff.

On the same day, the CWU filed an application for an ex parte injunction, claiming TSTT had breached good industrial relations practice by not giving the workers 45 days’ notice. The Industrial Court did not grant the CWU’s ex parte injunction application but stayed any action by the Company pending a further hearing.

Under the terms of the stay, all workers who received notices of retrenchment, but who wished nevertheless to do so, were allowed to report for work.

Some 44 of the 376 affected workers put themselves on a list of persons wanting to report for work; but fewer than 20 turned out on any one day.