Page 15 - Trends - Labour + Ind Relations 2017 - Vol 3

SECTION 3

TRADE DISPUTES

During the period 2012/13 to 2015/16 (Oct. 2012 – Sep. 2016), the Court received
3,083 new Trade Disputes. Of these disputes, 60.5% of the matters (1,864) were
related to dismissal/termination of employment, while others were related to
suspensions (219 matters), failure to pay wages (167 matters) and failure to pay
other benefits such as sick leave, injury leave and overtime (117 matters).

Table 3.6: TYPE OF TRADE DISPUTES (GENERAL SERVICES DIVISION ONLY)

2016/17
TRADE DISPUTES 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 (QI & QII)
Suspension 72 54 33 60 30
Dismissal/Termination 501 448 338 577 284
Retrenchment/Redundancy 6 2 5 3 3
Failure to pay Wages 47 28 36 56 13
Failure to pay Severance Benefits 10 13 10 4 10
Unilateral Variations of Contract 10 12 11 16 3
Breakdown in Negotiations 17 27 20 7 17
Failure to pay other benefits 20 30 11 56 14
(sick leave, overtime, injury leave,
Shift Bonus, non-payment of
vacation leave, non-payment of
leave for union business,
commission, heat bonus,
increments, travelling allowance)
Failure/Refusal to confirm/promote 29 25 29 31 15
Illegal deduction from salary 8 12 6 8 2
Lays off - - - 3 5
Miscellaneous 88 123 51 130 41
TOTAL 808 774 550 951 437

Source: Industrial Court of Trinidad & Tobago

In FY 2015/16 (Oct. 2015 – Sep. 2016), there was a marked increase of over 70% in
the number of trade disputes filed related to dismissal/termination of employment
when compared to FY 2014/15 (Oct. 2014 – Sep. 2015). In the first two quarters of
FY 2016/17 (Oct. 2016 – Sep. 2017), 437 trade disputes were received by the Court,
65% of which dealt with grievances related to dismissal/termination of
employment. Moreover, consistent with the prevailing industrial relations climate,
the Court received 5 trade disputes arising from layoffs compared to FY 2015/16
(Oct. 2015 – Sep. 2016), where there were only 3 such disputes.

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