Padarath dismisses CWU protest; insists no 10% wage hike on offer at TSTT

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has dis­missed Fri­day’s protest by the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers’ Union (CWU) as po­lit­i­cal the­atre, while main­tain­ing that no 10 per cent wage in­crease was ever of­fered to the union.

Speak­ing dur­ing an in­ter­view on state broad­cast­er TTT Live yes­ter­day, Padarath chal­lenged claims by CWU Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Joanne Ogeer that TSTT ex­ec­u­tives had promised work­ers a 10 per cent wage in­crease. He said con­sul­ta­tions with both the com­pa­ny’s chair­man and act­ing CEO con­firmed that no such pro­pos­al had been placed on the bar­gain­ing ta­ble.

“Every time the CWU speaks, they are shift­ing the goal­post,” Padarath said.