All Trinidad Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union Pres­i­dent Gen­er­al Nir­van Ma­haraj urged Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to act swift­ly on labour re­form, ar­gu­ing that the le­gal land­scape still heav­i­ly favours em­ploy­ers.

Ma­haraj called for ur­gent amend­ments to the Re­trench­ment and Sev­er­ance Ben­e­fits Act and Com­pa­nies Act, stronger pro­tec­tions for union recog­ni­tion, and the cre­ation of an in­dem­ni­ty fund for work­ers af­fect­ed by for­eign com­pa­ny clo­sures. He al­so pro­posed giv­ing the In­dus­tri­al Court full en­force­ment au­thor­i­ty and re­form­ing cost struc­tures that dis­cour­age work­ers from pur­su­ing ap­peals.

While with­hold­ing crit­i­cism this ear­ly in the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s term, Ma­haraj said, “We wait, we watch, and we will see what hap­pens lat­er on.”