On Thursday November 15, 2018, the sad news broke that 503 workers from the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) were being sent home. The news was déjà vu for us 59 lecturers who were retrenched on May 11, 2018 from the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). We were the first casualties of a State entity this year. Petrotrin workers soon followed.
Reading the news brought sad memories to me and my fellow ex-lecturers because the script was almost the same that was read to us six months ago by the same Government. TSTT is a large telephone and Internet service provider that is jointly owned by the Government and Cable & Wireless. The UTT is a Government-funded, non-profit educational institution.
On Thursday, TSTT workers received their retrenchment notices with payment in lieu of the 45 days’ notice. They were told to return all company’s property and identification badges in six weeks’ time by December 31st. The workers were told that they have become redundant in the company’s re-organised structure as a result of the company’s “reduction in revenue” which had been “operating at a loss.”
Like that of other UTT lecturers, my letter dated May 11, 2018 stated: “This letter serves as forty-five (45) days’ notice of the termination of your employment by reason of redundancy.”
Our letters notified us that we were not permitted “to report for duty” from May 11, but “permitted a period of one (1) week from the date hereof to collect your personal effects from your workspace.” On that fateful day, the Head of the Education Programme at UTT, Dr Judy Rocke, told the assembled lecturers that we had become “surplus” as part of the “the university’s “restructuring exercise.”
Class war against workers
Clyde Elder, Secretary General of the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), said that the jobs of more than 800 workers were at risk. Elder was right in claiming that it was a “class war” against workers because TSTT was hiring professional and managerial members of staff while firing senior and junior workers (Newsday 15/11/18). Elder added: “The corruption that is taking place in TSTT is what has us at this point right now and the management must be made to pay instead of the workers” (Express 17/11/18).
On May 11, 59 lecturers were sent home from UTT but managers were allowed to keep their jobs. On May 18, at a media conference, UTT’s deputy chairman and acting chairman of the Board of Governors Prof Clement Imbert indicated that next to go after the academics were “about 20 managers and four vice presidents.” Six months later, the public is still waiting on Imbert to say if these 24 highly-paid aristocrats are still employed at the university (Guardian 20/05/18). Imbert must also say why managers were not retrenched first?
No transparency in TSTT and UTT
It is unconstitutional and suspicious that both State entities – TSTT and UTT – are hiding information from the public. Elder said that his union is “unsure of how many workers are being terminated as TSTT has refused to supply the names of any terminated workers who are not part of the CWU bargaining unit” (Guardian 16/11/18).
On the day of our dismissal, Dr Rocke gave no justifiable, equitable and transparent criteria for our selection to be sacked. The UTT has also hidden the names of employees who have been sent home on May 11. Most of the retrenched lecturers were given their termination letters individually. To date, UTT’s President Sarim Al-Zubaidy has never revealed the names of lecturers dismissed, even in an internal memo. Current lecturers in the 12 campuses are still wondering if some of their missing colleagues have retired, resigned, migrated, kidnapped or died.
Lies by TSTT and UTT managers
Elder has accused TSTT of telling lies to the public. He accused the company of being “untruthful” with figures about high employee costs (Express 17/11/18). How could TSTT executives pay themselves $4.0 million in bonuses in 2017 when the company was operating at a loss? (Guardian 18/11/18).
At our UTT dismissal meeting, Dr Rocke told the assembled lecturers that all Secondary School Specialisation courses were being phased out, resulting in us being “redundant” in the university’s “restructuring exercise.” That is a lie. These courses are timetabled and are still being taught to new students during the new semester which began in September 3, 2018.
To date, there is no known or completed restructuring plan for UTT which supposedly formed the basis of our retrenchment. One of our attorneys sent a FOIA application to UTT requesting a report of its restructuring exercise. In a response dated 05/10/18, UTT’s Legal Manager Dayle Connelly wrote: “The restructuring exercise is not complete and there is no Restructuring Exercise Report.” Yep. I am not telling a lie. Please read Connelly’s response again. Shocked? His reply tells it all about the assassination of UTT by Iraqi President Al-Zubaidy.
is a full-time anthropologist at the University of Guyana (UG) and Fellow of The Eccles Centre for American Studies, British Library (2022-23). He is a former Assistant Professor at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). He obtained his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Florida (UF). As a doctoral student, he won a Florida Caribbean Institute Award, an A. Curtis Wilgus Grant, and an Organization of American States (OAS) Fellowship.
Mahabir received a National Award (Hummingbird Silver Medal) for his contribution to education in his country in 2011. He was among 50 recipients who received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the UWI Alumni Association.
Mahabir is the author of 12 books to date.