A long-running labor dispute at Trinidad and Tobago’s Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has escalated this week, with the Public Services Association (PSA) mandating that utility workers halt business-as-usual operations until management progresses the union’s counter-proposals through the approval pipeline. The union blames WASA’s human resources director for a seven-month deadlock that has put overdue salary settlements at risk of further delay.
PSA President Felisha Thomas told reporters on Tuesday that union representatives and WASA workers gathered at the authority’s St Joseph Sports Club to await action from WASA’s board of directors, which must sign off on the counter-proposals before they can be forwarded to the Ministry of Finance for final review.
The current standoff is rooted in years of back-and-forth negotiations over unpaid salary arrears for public servants covering two periods: 2014–2016 and 2017–2019. Under the established negotiation process, WASA’s HR director is tasked with drafting a formal submission for the WASA board, which then sends the approved counter-proposals to the Human Resources Advisory Committee before transmission to the Finance Ministry. Thomas confirmed that no progress has been made on this internal step since January.
“From January to the present, they have not made any submissions in that phase,” Thomas said in an interview with TV6 News. “In particular, the director of HR, who’s charged with the responsibility to move the negotiations from around the table to the board so that it can be transmitted to the ministry, she has not so much as prepared a note to the Human Resources Advisory Committee to advance the counter-proposals on behalf of WASA.”
In response to the prolonged inaction, the union issued a formal mandate that workers will not continue operating under normal work conditions until the full internal and external approval process for the counter-proposals is complete. Thomas called on WASA board members to attend the St Joseph Sports Club in person to approve the required documentation and get the process moving again.
Thomas also issued a stark warning that additional delays could push the final salary settlement back by another full year, citing comments from Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo regarding negotiation timelines tied to the upcoming mid-year budget review. Seven months of inaction since the initial counter-proposals were tabled, she said, is an unacceptable outcome for workers who have waited years for their owed arrears.
“These negotiations, these submissions were made since January. We are in August, and it is unacceptable for the director of HR to say that she has not done this,” Thomas added, stressing that urgent management action is required to prevent further hold-ups to a final settlement.
When pressed by reporters on the perceived conflict of serving as a labor representative while also holding positions on government-appointed state boards, Thomas pushed back on the framing of the question. “I am glad you asked that question. I sit on a State board as labour, and every single situation, I represent,” she said.
The current escalation comes three months after Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath told Parliament he had ordered WASA management to resume wage negotiations with the PSA, at which time he described the union as a valued partner of the current government.
In the wake of the union’s announcement, social media circulated claims that WASA workers had staged a lunchtime protest outside the authority’s St Joseph Public Education Centre after negotiations broke down, with a video posted to CNC3’s social platforms amplifying the narrative. But WASA’s Corporate Communications Manager Kristy Ramnarine refuted the protest claims in a telephone interview with the *Express*, clarifying the sequence of events that unfolded on Tuesday.
Ramnarine explained that PSA members were invited to gather at the Public Education Centre to receive an update on the status of negotiations. Following that briefing, the union and management teams walked together to the nearby St Joseph Sports Club to continue ongoing discussions, contradicting claims that an organized protest had taken place.