T&TEC workers get outstanding COLA payments from Dec

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has an­nounced that Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) work­ers rep­re­sent­ed by the Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) will re­ceive out­stand­ing cost-of-liv­ing al­lowance (CO­LA) pay­ments on over­time earn­ings in two in­stal­ments, be­gin­ning in De­cem­ber.

Speak­ing dur­ing de­bate on the Ap­pro­pri­a­tion (Fi­nan­cial Year 2027) Bill, 2026, in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, Padarath said the set­tle­ment would re­solve a long­stand­ing in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions is­sue while pro­vid­ing ad­di­tion­al in­come to af­fect­ed em­ploy­ees.

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He said the out­stand­ing CO­LA on over­time worked be­tween Jan­u­ary 1, 2015, and Sep­tem­ber 30, 2025, is es­ti­mat­ed to cost ap­prox­i­mate­ly $15 mil­lion.