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Part-time employees: who they are, what they get

Things are not getting better for those marginalised in our society. People laid off applying for government grants promised by the Prime Minister before the election are still having trouble getting them. Restaurants and fast-food places are still only open for those able to line up and take away, if they keep their distance lining […]

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Many questions about pandemic leave

Back in 2017, I became concerned when I discovered that a neighbour of mine, who had been employed as a daily-paid worker in the Ministry of Works for over 40 years, had died leaving no pension for his wife to live on. When I enquired I was told that daily-paid workers’ positions were not pensionable […]

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Paradoxes and human relations

This article was first published in the Trinidad Express Newspapers on December 15th 2019. My basic discipline  in University was Philosophy …Everything that  human relationships  touches on  is based on a philosophy of one sort or another. The Industrial Court, for example, was based on the philosophy  clearly enunciated by its first President, Sir Isaac Hyatali, who , […]

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Retrenchment Act vs Collective Agreement.

This article was first published in the Trinidad Express Newspapers on December 1st 2019. Confusion has greeted reports that appeared in most of the daily papers last week  about the interpretation of an award delivered  by the industrial Court  in Complaint no. GSD-IRO 36  of 2018  between OWTU and Trinidad Cement Ltd.. It  happens from time to time […]

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Getting to know family firms.

This article was first published in the Trinidad Express Newspapers on November 24th 2019. Family firms are fascinating, unlike what economists have been saying for years, family firms from start-up to medium sized are often better able to survive economic downturns than the large public owned ones. Of course, history tells us that economists, like weather forecasters, are […]

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Is mental illness a disability?

This article was first published in the Trinidad Express Newspapers on November 17th 2019. The handling of mental illness in the workplace is an issue that has not been formally or specifically addressed in T&T. Unlike physical illness which has legislative coverage under the Minimum Wages Act, mental illness, which is frequently the precursor to the physical and cannot […]

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The changing face of work

This article was first published in the Trinidad Express Newspapers on November 10th 2019. Have you noticed the evolution in commerce lately? In many cultures, time is not regarded as something successive, but as a circular phenomenon. Although the conventional European concept of history is sequential – that time is linear, just one thing after another until you […]

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Changing perceptions of harassment

This article was first published in the Trinidad Express Newspapers on November 3rd 2019. The conventional belief in sociology used to be that it takes a whole generation for patterns of social or cultural behaviour to change. The rule of thumb definition of generation was 15 years. In this Axial age we are going through time seems to […]

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The paradox of recognition

This article was first published in the Trinidad Express Newspapers on October 27th 2019. In Trinidad & Tobago ‘s Industrial Relations system ”Recognition “ resembles what used to  be referred to as “Plighting your troth” Which was promising to  enter into and stay in  a contractual relationship with another in  which both would  take responsibility for those under […]

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