Workers at Trinidad and Tobago’s Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) have ended industrial protest action after the country’s Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath issued a formal guarantee that the current government would uphold all pre-election commitments made to employees represented by the Public Services Association (PSA).
The breakthrough came following a face-to-face meeting between Padarath, PSA president Felisha Thomas, and union leadership held at WASA’s St Joseph head office on Tuesday. The meeting was organized specifically to address long-stalled wage negotiation rounds covering the 2014–2016 and 2017–2019 periods, alongside long-running grievances over internal HR processes that had delayed progress on the claims.
Images of the minister walking hand-in-hand with Thomas into the WASA compound signaled a new spirit of cooperation between the government, the union, and the utility provider. Speaking to assembled workers after the meeting concluded, Thomas confirmed that the minister had met all core demands put forward by the union to break the negotiation deadlock. Under the agreement struck, WASA’s HR leadership will review the union’s formal proposals this week, with full documentation of the proposals set to be submitted to the Ministry of Public Utilities by Friday.
Padarath also committed to convening a follow-up meeting between the PSA, himself, and Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo to move toward a final settlement. Addressing the gathered workers, Padarath emphasized the current administration has not broken any pre-election agreements made with public sector workers, noting that stalled negotiations stemmed from procedural bottlenecks rather than a lack of commitment.
“A breakdown in communication is always a recipe for industrial disaster,” Padarath told the crowd, explaining his intervention to speed up the process. To cut through internal red tape, the minister appointed WASA’s acting chief executive Dain Maharaj to serve as a dedicated intermediary between the union and the utility’s HR department, ordering Maharaj to ensure all required paperwork reaches the ministry by the end of the week.
Padarath acknowledged the validity of Thomas’ concerns over inefficient internal HR management at WASA, and committed to reviewing those systemic issues with the utility’s board chair and executive leadership. He clarified that as a cabinet minister he cannot directly intervene in HR operational matters, but pledged that the ministry would provide regular updates to the PSA executive as the review and negotiation processes move forward.
In his remarks, Padarath also struck a note of caution, acknowledging that the current government has inherited significant fiscal and operational challenges from the previous administration. He warned that a failure to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue could put WASA jobs at risk if administrative structures are destabilized. To address the fiscal constraints, he noted the government has pursued strategic local and international partnership investments to strengthen public finances and allow the state to meet its commitments to workers.
Reiterating the administration’s commitment to a collaborative resolution, Padarath called on both the union and WASA management to maintain open lines of communication moving forward to prevent future disruptions to service and industrial relations.