About 150 workers will be paid by Dec. 15. The minister also blamed “poor maintenance” for recent power interruptions.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath announced in Parliament on Friday that PowerGen and the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) have reached a TT$66.1 million wage settlement, ending nine and a half years of unresolved negotiations.
The agreement covers the bargaining periods 2016-17 and 2018-2020, with a 9% cumulative increase over five years for about 150 workers, Padarath said. Payments are scheduled by Dec. 15, 2026. He said the matter was resolved through bilateral negotiations and not an Industrial Court ruling, and he commended PowerGen’s management and the OWTU’s leadership. Earlier this month, in the budget debate, he said, a long-outstanding cost-of-living settlement was reached for hundreds of T&TEC workers.
The statement came on the day trade unions and the Opposition marched in Port of Spain. Padarath said he saw a placard reading “Workers are on 2013 salaries in 2026,” and that the last time thousands of public servants received increases was under the People’s Partnership, which he said settled more than 136 wage negotiations in 2010-2015. He said the Government never promised to settle every industrial matter on day one, only to address them during its term. “Bit by bit,” he said, “we are fixing it.”
Padarath said the Prime Minister on Thursday challenged union leaders to put their members before politics. He said the workers’ representatives for PowerGen and T&TEC did not rush to accept low offers days before the 2025 general election to prop up what he called an incompetent PNM administration. He said not all unions are aligned with the Opposition and said the Government stands in solidarity with the OWTU, which did not take part in Friday’s march.
On power outages, Padarath said recent interruptions in several communities came from unplanned generator trips and problems at independent power producers. He said T&TEC is working with Trinidad Generation Unlimited and other producers to restore generating capacity. He blamed “poor maintenance” of several power purchase companies over the last nine and a half years. He said enhanced monitoring is in place and technical investigations are under way to find the causes and reduce the risk of recurrence.
Aurax News did not have a response from the PNM at publication. The claims about past wage settlements and offers are the minister’s.
This report draws on a statement by Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath in Parliament