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PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesssar has ordered the immediate payment of salary arrears to some 950 current and past staff of the National Insurance Board (NIB), she told the House of Representatives in a ministerial statement on September 12.

The sum covers a collective award for 2014-2016 which she said had been legally registered but then never implemented by the former PNM government whom she dubbed as "vindictive, petty and spiteful." She said this announcement showed her government fulfilling its workers agenda and would be followed by more similar actions.

Some 600 current employees and 350 retirees are to be paid arrears, she said, although not detailing where the money would be coming from.