Media Advisory - ILO supports first meeting of the Trinidad and Tobago bipartite forum

The meeting follows an agreement on 5 November 2015 by the affiliates of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) and the Caribbean Employers’ Confederation (CEC) to establish formal bipartite forums in 15 Caribbean countries in order to deepen cooperation between trade unions and employers’ organizations to better coordinate research and advocacy on matters of mutual importance.

News | 11 February 2016
The Employers' Consultative Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ECATT) and the National Trade Union Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (NATUC), supported by the ILO Office for the Caribbean, will hold the first meeting of the Trinidad and Tobago Bipartite Forum on Tuesday, 16 February 2016 at the Kapok Hotel in St. Clair, to assess the state of the economy in Trinidad and Tobago.

As well as representatives from ECATT, NATUC, ILO, CEC and CCL, the forum will host Mr José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs in his first visit to Trinidad and Tobago as Director of the ILO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Lima, Peru.

The meeting follows an agreement on 5 November 2015 by the affiliates of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) and the Caribbean Employers’ Confederation (CEC) to establish formal bipartite forums in 15 Caribbean countries in order to deepen cooperation between trade unions and employers’ organizations to better coordinate research and advocacy on matters of mutual importance. The agreement was announced at the Regional Bipartite Meeting in Grenada attended by senior representatives from trade unions and employer organizations from 15 CARIFORUM States, under the €1.7 million (US$ 2 mllion) three-year Project for CEC and CCL which is funded by the European Union and for which the International Labour Organization (ILO) is the executing agency.

The ILO Office for the Caribbean is pleased to support the social partners of Trinidad and Tobago in this new era of cooperation and social dialogue as they work together to build consensus towards a clear understanding of the social and economic imperatives at this juncture and work towards contributing to national policy directions in the interest of working people and business in the twin-island State.

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Contacts at the ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean
Dawn Lafond | lafond@ilo.org | +1 (868) 623 7178/ 7704 ext 412
Averlon Toussaint | toussaint@ilo.org | +1 (868) 623 7178/ 7704 ext 411

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