THE Public Services Association (PSA) has instructed Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) workers not to work “as usual” until management advances the uni­on’s counter-proposals for approval, accusing the authority’s director of Human Resources of failing to move negotiations forward since January.PSA president Felisha Thomas said the union was at WASA’s Sports Club, St Joseph, yesterday with workers awaiting management action and had called on board members to approve the necessary submission to the Finance Ministry.The PSA has been in longstanding negoti­a­tions with the Chief Per­sonnel Officer over ar­rears owed to public ser­vants for the 2014-2016 and 2017-2019 periods.Thomas was speaking with TV6 News and said that the director of Human Resour­ces was responsible for moving the negotiations from the bargaining table to the board before the proposals could be transmitted to the ministry, but had not prepared a note for the Human Resources Advisory Committee.“From January to pre­sent, they have not made any submissions in that phase. In particular, the director of HR, who’s charged with the responsibility to move the negotiations from around the table to the board so that it can be transmitted to the ministry, she has not so much as prepared a note to the Human Resources Advisory Committee to advance the counter-­proposals on behalf of WASA,” she said.Thomas said the uni­on had therefore set a mandate that workers would not continue working “as usual” until the counter-propo­sals were submitted and approved.She said the PSA had called on WASA board members to come to the Sports Club and approve what was needed for the submission to be advanced to the ministry.Thomas also warned that further delays could leave workers waiting another year for a sala­ry settlement, citing com­ments by Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo on negotiations ahead of the mid-year review and budget.“These negotiations, these submissions were made since January. We are in August, and it is unacceptable for the director of HR to say that she has not done this,” Thomas said.She said management needed to act urgently to move the negotiations forward and prevent further delays in reaching a settlement.The PSA’s position comes as the union pres­ses WASA’s manage­ment to complete the internal approval process and transmit its counter-proposals to the ministry.Asked by the media how she manages the challenge between fighting the State on behalf of public servants and ser­ving on Government-appointed boards, Thomas responded: “I am glad you asked that question. I sit on a State board as labour, and every single situation, I represent.”In May, Public Utili­ties Minister Barry Pada­rath told the Parliament in a statement that he had ordered WASA’s management to resume wage negotiations with the PSA. At the time, he said the PSA remained a valued member of the Government.Meanwhile, in a telephone interview with the Express, WASA’s corpo­rate communications ma­nager, Kristy Ramna­rine, refuted claims there was a protest outside the authority’s Public Educa­tion Centre (PEC), St Joseph.She was referring to a video on CNC3’s social media page saying that WASA workers had staged a lunchtime protest outside the PEC, St Joseph, after negotiations broke down.She reported that PSA members had been asked to gather at the PEC building, “where they had an update for them”.She added that the union and management team then walked to the Sports Club where the negotiations continued.