ST. GEORGE’S, GRENADA DECEMBER 21- The Dickon Mitchell administration has been compelled to honor a binding agreement to pay T.A. Marryshow Community College workers their 5% wage increase for 2025, following Public Workers Union-led industrial action that ended an 18-month dispute.
In an exclusive interview on The Bubb Report Sunday morning, Public Workers Union President Daisy Hazzard revealed that the government breached a sealed contract by refusing to honor wage increases negotiated and ratified during the 2023-2025 cycle.
Hazzard, citing legal advice, argued, “Government cannot deny that. It will be breaking a contract. As one lawyer told me, it’s a matter of thought law. It’s a contract, it’s an agreement.”
The dispute began in 2024, when the Cabinet directed that the 2025 increases would not be paid until workers agreed to renegotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement for 2026-2028, even though 2025 was part of an already completed three-year cycle.
Hazzard explained that “the public will understand that 2025 cannot be and is not a part of that cycle because we negotiated for that in a previous three-year cycle, 23 to 25.”
While TAMCC workers were denied 2025 increases, other public-sector employees received theirs on schedule; TAMCC workers had previously received 2023-2024 increases.
The government justified the decision by citing three factors: revenue losses from TAMCC’s free tuition policy, geopolitical instability, and inflation below 1%. However, Hazzard disputed these reasons, pointing out that other workers were still paid despite the same economic conditions.
“Industrial action happened, and quickly the government indicated it would pay, because really the government never had a leg to stand on not to pay,” she said.
Hazzard emphasized that industrial action was a last resort after 18 months of attempted dialogue: “We took deliberate care for more than one year. We exercised all of the patience.”
She also raised concerns about the administration’s engagement with labor, noting that only one formal meeting had occurred since the government took office in July 2022. “Our experience with the present administration from 2022 to now is that they do not speak to Labour,” she said, contrasting this with the previous administration, which “cleared $21.5 million in arrears – nearly 10 years of outstanding payments” in 2019.
The matter is in conciliation; workers expect payment by December 31st, though none has been received to date.
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