MINISTER OF Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies, was scheduled to seek Cabinet approval for an offer aimed at settling the pay dispute at the FINSAC-controlled Union Bank, yesterday.
BITU senior vice-president, Ruddy Spencer, confirmed yesterday that this was the agreement reached between the union and Dr. Davies at a meeting on the issue last Friday evening. However, Mr. Spencer said that the details of the offer could not be made public until it has been put to the workers at a meeting tomorrow.
"It's not what we expected, but it is good enough to go on," Mr. Spencer told The Gleaner yesterday. He said that Friday's talks were "very candid and frank."
He also confirmed that an undertaken had been given by the Royal Bank Financial Holdings of Trinidad and Tobago (RBTT) that there would be no redundancies linked to their acquisition of the bank later this year.
Wage talks between the BITU and FINSAC have been continuing in the midst of plans to sell the entity to the RBTT Financial Holdings. The sale had raised concerns among the workers, over job security and the conclusion of the wages negotiations.
Union Bank is a merger of four failed local commercial banks Workers, Eagle, Citizens and Island Victoria - and employs over 900 workers.
