3. CONTRACT OF SERVICE
CONTAINS
JOB TITLE
PROBATIONARY PERIOD
HOURS OF WORK
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
BENEFITS
CONTRACT FOR SERVICES
CONTAINS
SCOPE OF WORK
CONDITIONS FOR
PERFORMANCE
BASIS AND PERIODICITY OF
PAYMENT
CONTRACTS OF EMPLOYMENT
BOTH BASED ON COMMON LAW
4. TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT
CONTRACTS
OPEN ENDED
CASUAL
TEMPORARY
TERM SPECIFIED
PIECE WORK
PROJECT
FIXED TERM
RENEWABLE
LABOUR ONLY
HRMATT’s 9th Biennial Conference – May 13th & 14th, 2013
6. CHARACTERISTICSCHARACTERISTICS
CONTROL IS EXERCISED BY
THE EMPLOYER OF BOTH
WHAT IS DONE AND HOW IT
IS DONE.
REQUIRES ATTENDANCE OF
SPECIFIC EMPLOYEE
USUALLY FOR REGULAR
PERIODS OF TIME.
CONTRACTOR DETERMINES
HOW WORK IS CARRIED
OUT.
SPECIFIC PERSON OR
PERSONS NEED NOT BE
PRESENT.
CONTRACT OF CONTRACT FOR
7. CHARACTERISTICSCHARACTERISTICS
PAYMENT IS ON A REGULAR
BASIS AND RELATED TO A
STANDARD PERIOD DURING
WHICH THE WORK IS DONE.
EQUIPMENT, SYSTEMS AND
CONTROLS ARE PROVIDED
BY THE EMPLOYER AND SET
FOR THE EMPLOYEE.
PAYMENT IS FOR
SATISFACTORY DELIVERY OF
CONTRACTED OUTCOME
AND NOT DEPENDENT ON
TIME.
CONTRACTOR PROVIDES HIS
OWN EQUIPMENT AS WELL
AS DIRECTION AND
CONTROL.
CONTRACT OF
CONTRACT FOR
9. A. UNDER THE I.R.A.
1. Upon recognition - to treat and enter into negotiations in
good faith - I.R.A. Section 40 (1).
2. Not to victimize workers for trade union activities
3. Unless the employer has specifically agreed otherwise (e.g.
through a union agreement) the employer does not have to
pay any worker for time not spent working due to union
activities (or, indeed, any other activities) - 42 (5).
MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES FOR INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS
•Definition - worker -Employer
- non worker -Industrial Action
-Strike
-Lockout
10. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT
4. To ensure that no provision in a collective agreement applies
benefits to only members of a particular union -43 (5).
5. If a collective agreement has been registered, an employer
cannot plead ignorance of the provisions in it. Even if the
employer has genuinely never seen it, having just bought over
the company from someone else for example, he is deemed to
have seen it.
6. When employees are on a legal strike, an employer cannot
dismiss such employees just on the grounds of that strike
alone.
11. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT
7. When employees are on an illegal strike, an employer can
terminate their employment on those grounds alone - (in fact
what the Act says is that the employer can treat such action on
the part of the worker as evidence that the employee has
terminated his/her own employment). The employer cannot,
however, take an employee back on after an illegal strike and
then subsequently dismiss that employee for having taken
illegal strike action.
8. Where any offence punishable under the I.R.A. has been
committed by a company, anyone who at that time was a
managerial employee of the company is deemed personally
guilty of the offence, and can be fined or imprisoned, depending
on what the penalty was unless he can prove both that the
offence was committed without his 'consent and connivance'
and that the he exercised all due diligence in preventing the
commission of the act.
12. TRUCK ORDINANCE
B.
1. An employer must pay actual
wages in money. This does not
exclude the payment of some
fringe benefits (e.g. free company
products) in kind.
2. No deductions can be made from
a worker's wages without his
consent other than deductions
due to fines, deductions under the
law, or deductions under known
work rules for negligence or injury
to tools or equipment.
13. FOREIGN LABOUR CONTRACTS
C.
1. A foreign employer wishing to hire Trinidadian
Labourers to take them to another country to
work must have the written consent of the
President and provide a contract of employment
describing work to be done, the country, place
and locality where it is to be done, the address of
the employer, the amount and periodicity of
wages and an assurance that the labourer will be
repatriated at the end of the contract period.
15. D.
1. An employer cannot sue a union for loss of
business or loss of income sustained due to a
legal strike.
2. An employer cannot sue a union for trying to
persuade workers to break their contract of
employment or interfering with people's
(picketing) rights to dispose of their labour or
their money as they wish.
17. E.
1. Where an employer intends to
retrench five or more workers he
must give notice in writing to each
such worker, to the recognized
union (if any) and to the Minister
of Labour.
2. The minimum period of notice
required is 45 days before the
actual retrenchment takes place,
although if an employer can prove
to the Minister that genuinely
unforeseen circumstances have
arisen which have made that
length of notice impossible, the
Minister may accept a shorter
notice period.
18. RETRENCHMENT AND SEVERANCE BENEFITS ACT
3. If less than five workers are to be retrenched at one time,
providing others are also retrenched within the 45 day notice
period, they will be counted together with the first ones.
4. If the recognized trade union objects to the retrenchment and
asks the employer for further specific and relevant information
about the reasons for the retrenchment, the employer must
supply that information or, if the employer feels that disclosing
the information requested would be detrimental to the
company, he may refuse to do so. The union may take that
refusal to the Ministry - or the Minister may intervene on his
own.
5. If there is no union, a worker given notice may ask the Minister
to intervene on his/her behalf. Where this happens, the
employer must then respond to the Minister's intervention.
19. RETRENCHMENT AND SEVERANCE BENEFITS ACT
6. An employer must not
refuse to give a worker
under such notice time off in
order to look for another
job, unless this would
interfere with "the
operational needs of the
business".
7. The employer must pay
severance benefits within
thirty days of the expiration
of notice.
20. RETRENCHMENT AND SEVERANCE BENEFITS ACT
8. The minimum severance benefits
payable by the employer are as
follows:
(a) Where he has served the employer
without a break in service for
between more than one but less
than five years, he is entitled for
each such completed year of
service to two weeks’ pay at his
basic rate if he is an hourly, daily or
weekly rated worker, or one half
month’s pay at his basic rate if he
is a monthly rated worker;
21. RETRENCHMENT AND SEVERANCE BENEFITS ACT
(b) Where he has served the employer without a break
in service for five years or more, he is in addition to
his entitlement under paragraph (a), entitled for
the fifth year and for each succeeding completed
year of service to three weeks pay at his basic rate
if he is an hourly, daily or weekly rated worker, or
three quarters month’s pay at his basic rate if he is
a monthly rated worker.
(c) For each period of service amounting to less than a
completed year of service and in respect of
workers who qualify under section 3(1)(d),
payment shall be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
23. WORKMEN'S WAGES (PROTECTION)
G.
1. An employer must not pay out wages to a
manual labourer in a rum shop or other place
where intoxicating liquor is sold unless the
labourer is employed in that establishment.
24. MINIMUMWAGES ACT
NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGES & CERTAIN BASIC
CONDITIONS
IMPACTS OF THE ORDERS
CHANGES TO THE ACT ITSELF
- DEFINITIONS
- RIGHTS TO REDRESS
- TRANSFER FROM CIVIL TO INDUSTRIAL
COURT
25. $12.50 minimum wage now in effect
Story Created: Jan 2, 2011 at 10:46 PM ECT EXPRESS NEWSPAPER
The new minimum wage in Trinidad and Tobago took effect on Saturday.
The Minimum Wages Order 2010 increased the wage from $9 per hour to $12.50
per hour.
The announcement of the increase was first made by Minister of Labour Errol
McLeod during his national budget presentation last year.
The order, which revoked its 2005 predecessor, highlighted some of the categories
of workers that will benefit from the new legislation.
"The national minimum wage and provisions relating to overtime in this Order shall
be applicable to petrol filling station employees, catering industry employees, shop
assistants, security industry employees and household assistants," the order read.
26. $12.50 minimum wage now in effect
However, other terms and conditions that have been
established in the respective pieces of legislation for these
categories of workers will remain in effect.
There are also some categories of workers that will not benefit from
the wage hike.
According to the order, the increase does not apply to:
"a. trainees in training schools approved by appropriate Government agencies such at the (i)
Youth Training and Employment Partnership Programme (YTEPP); or (ii) National
Energy Skills Centre;
"b. schemes developed from time to time by other Government ministries, departments or
agencies;
"c. other schemes submitted to and approved by the Minister to whom responsibility for
labour is assigned;
"d. registered apprentices;
"e. students on vacation jobs;
27. $12.50 minimum wage now in effect
"And f. persons who volunteer services to registered
charitable organisations and social services agencies
registered with the Ministries responsible for social
services, youth, sports, community development or gender
affairs."
The legislation was careful to mention that its proclamation
was not meant to reduce the wages of employees who
were already earning in excess of $12.50 an hour.
"This order shall not be construed as authorising a. the
reduction of wages paid to those employees who already receive
wages in excess of the national minimum wage; and b. changes in the
existing terms and conditions of any worker to effect a lowering of
such terms and conditions.“
Abby Brathwaite
29. NATIONAL INSURANCE AMENDMENTS
Effective March 4, 2013
Maternity Grant and special maternity grant
increased from $2,500 to 3,750
Retirement from $2,000 to 3,000
Funeral Grant from $5,000 to 7,500.
31. MATERNITY PROTECTION ACT
DEFINITIONS
EXTENDS AUTHORITY TO NURSES AND MIDWIVES
EMPLOYEE CAN GO STRAIGHT TO MINISTRY OF
LABOUR
PRENATAL CARE – OFF WITH PAY
FULL PAY FOR FOURTEEN WEEKS
32. MATERNITY PROTECTION ACT
EXTENSION OF UP TO FOURTEEN WEEKS FOR
MEDICAL REASONS
EXTENSION OF UP TO FOUR WEEKS NON-MEDICAL
REASONS
CANNOT TERMINATE ON GROUND OR RELATING
TO PREGNANCY
36. SECTION 7
1. A person shall not otherwise than in
private, do any act which-
(a) is reasonably likely, in all the
circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate
or intimidate another person or group of
persons;
(b) is done because of the gender, race,
ethnicity, origin or religion of the other
person or of some or all of the persons in
the group; and
(c ) which is done with the intention of
inciting gender, racial or religious hatred.
37. SECTION 7
2. For the purposes of subsection (1), an act is
taken not to be done in private if it-
(a) cause words, sounds, images or writing to be
communicated to the public;
(b) is done in public place;
(c ) is done in the sight and hearing of persons
who are in a public place.
3. This section does not apply to acts committed in
a place of public worship.
39. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTHBILL
TO REPLACE FACTORIES ACT
EXTENSIVE COMMENTS SUBMITTED
IMPACTS ARE FAR REACHING
CURRENTLY ON PARLIAMENTARY AGENDA
