Government's Collective Bargaining Violation

Government's Collective Bargaining Violation

Recently, Government came to Parliament to debate a Variation of Appropriation Bill 2016 (a Bill to shift around allocations of expenditure passed in the 2016 Appropriation Act known by most as the 2016 Budget).

In addressing the Parliament, the Finance Minister announced a decision by Government concerning the arrears of salary owed to public officers.

The Minister said, "I wish to confirm that it is the Government’s intention to pay 50% of the outstanding arrears of salary to public officers by the end of June 2016. The remaining 50% will either be paid in interest-bearing Government Bonds by the end of September 2016, or in two further instalments in cash in 2017, at the option of the workers."

Whatever the Government's intention is not a matter for Decree.

Salaries - the levels thereof and the arrangements for payment including any arrears are matters for Collective Bargaining (i.e. Negotiation) between the employer and the employees' representatives.

In the case of the Public Service, collective bargaining is conducted between the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) and the recognised Associations representing the Officers in the various services (Civil, Teaching, Protective Services and the Statutory bodies)

The Government CANNOT unilaterally decide how and when arrears (backpay) is to be paid. It is required by law and the tenets of good industrial relations practice to meet and treat and negotiate these matters with the relevant Associations and Unions.

The existence of economic or fiscal difficulties DOES NOT eliminate this duty on the part of the Government, as Employer.

This obligation to engage in negotiations DOES NOT depend on any arrangement to "consult" with the trade union movement in tripartite arrangement on other matters of national economic issues.

Further, the Truck Act, Ch. 88:07, declares that all wages are to be paid in money and "every payment of or on account of any such wages made in any other form shall be illegal, null, and void. /"

Repeating the Errors of 1986-87

In the 1980's, when the country experienced another recession triggered by falling oil prices, the NAR government also abandoned its duty to negotiate with the public service associations and illegally imposed a 10% salary cut and removal of Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).

In the case of Bernadette Hood-Caesar v the AG, the High Court declared the Government's action to be unconstitutional as it acted unilaterally and deprived public officers of their property without due process of law.

The Industrial Court, in the matters IRO 2 - 17 of 1987, also found that Government in the statutory bodies had committed Industrial Relations Offences in unilaterally altering the workers' terms of employment.

That action created a debt of over $2 Billion owed to public officers and public sector workers.

How and when this debt was to be paid then had to be negotiated between the Government and various employers and the public sector associations and unions.

By unilaterally announcing how and when the current debt of arrears arising out of salary negotiations in 2015 are to be paid, the present PNM government is repeating the errors of the NAR in 1986-87.

The PNM must also be aware of this obligation to negotiate as it was in Government in 1997 when the whole issue of payment of the debt was finally settled.

What is ironic is that the current Minister of Labour was an Executive Officer of the largest public service association - the PSA in the 1980's when the then Government also acted by Decree. Bernadette Hood-Caesar was a civil servant through whom the PSA challenged the Governent's action.

Now the Minister is seeking to apologise for Government's failure to "consult" with the public service associations. And not for the first time.

In fact, the PNM's breach of its duty to engage in collective bargaining on the issue of the payment of arrears owed to public officers is not only breach of the law, but, again exposes the emptiness of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the PNM and the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) in 2015,

The public officers must insist that their representative associations and unions demand that the Government negotiate how and when their backpay is to be paid.

Those who are calling the making of such a demand 'unreasonable' are supporting the Government in violating the law and breaching its duty to engage in collective bargaining.

Government MUST negotiate the arrangements for payment of arrears to all its employees.