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Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced Gov­ern­ment has in­struct­ed the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NIBTT) to im­ple­ment salary ad­just­ments and pay out­stand­ing ar­rears to em­ploy­ees dat­ing back to the 2014–2016 ne­go­ti­at­ing pe­ri­od.

Speak­ing in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the de­ci­sion was in­tend­ed to up­hold work­ers’ rights, ho­n­our law­ful agree­ments, and re­store jus­tice. “The for­mer PNM gov­ern­ment placed po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence above the law, sac­ri­ficed jus­tice on the al­tar of ex­pe­di­en­cy, and in the process robbed thou­sands of cit­i­zens of their right­ful salary ad­just­ments and ar­rears,” she said, not­ing that 600 cur­rent em­ploy­ees and 350 for­mer em­ploy­ees had been af­fect­ed.

Cab­i­net has di­rect­ed the Board to im­ple­ment the agreed salary ad­just­ments “with im­me­di­ate ef­fect” and to fa­cil­i­tate “full and prompt pay­ment of all out­stand­ing ar­rears to af­fect­ed em­ploy­ees with­out de­lay.”