A high-profile public dispute over delayed public servant salaries has broken out in Trinidad and Tobago, with Rural Development and Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen accusing the Port of Spain City Corporation and its mayor of prioritizing petty political gain over worker stability.
The conflict began last week, when Port of Spain Mayor Chinua Alleyne publicly raised alarm over delayed June paychecks for the city’s monthly-paid municipal employees. Alleyne claimed the central Local Government Ministry had dragged its feet on approving June payroll funding, warning that no financial provision had even been made for salary payments beyond the month of June. He added that City Hall had repeatedly alerted national government officials that the corporation would be unable to meet its payroll obligations, but those warnings were ignored. Just one day after his initial statement, however, Alleyne updated the public via his official Facebook page that the corporation had received a funding cheque — though he clarified the sum still did not cover payroll obligations past June.
Minister Ameen pushed back against Alleyne’s narrative while speaking to reporters at a Venezuela earthquake relief donation drive in Woodbrook earlier this week, laying full blame for the delay at the feet of the city corporation. She explained that following a mandated public service salary increase, ministry officials required updated documentation from all municipal corporations to properly recalculate and audit payroll allocations. Meetings were held with Port of Spain representatives in March and again in April to outline these requirements, but the city failed to submit the necessary paperwork on time.
According to Ameen, the situation moved toward resolution only after the city finally submitted its first set of documents the previous Friday. Ministry staff worked through the weekend to process the submission, but a second round of documents turned in on Sunday contained errors. City officials finalized corrections on Monday, clearing the way for full funding to be disbursed.
Ameen confirmed that the cheque the corporation received covers all salary obligations from the mid-year budget review through the end of the current financial year, meaning all affected monthly-paid workers under the Public Services Association have now received their pay. She noted that daily-paid and contract municipal workers were never impacted by the administrative backlog.
The minister went a step further, accusing Alleyne of seeking cheap political mileage by going public with the dispute before the issue could be resolved internally. She argued that the premature publicity caused unnecessary harm to workers, sharing that one employee contacted her in tears after a local credit union halted approval on her long-awaited loan over unfounded concerns about her job security.
Ameen also pointed to broader administrative frictions with municipal corporations controlled by the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), claiming petty political posturing often leads PNM-led bodies to avoid routine outreach that would prevent processing delays. She emphasized that she has maintained close coordination with public service unions to protect worker interests, and stressed that no politics will be allowed to jeopardize employee pay or job security. She issued a public assurance to all municipal workers across the country that their salaries are fully secure and all outstanding administrative issues have been resolved.