Between June and September 2025, the government terminated over 15,000 workers from state employment programmes. On June 27, approximately 10,500 CEPEP workers and 360 contractors were let go, with termination letters citing Clause 15.1 of the 2022 contract. On July 2, the National Reforestation and Watershed Programme was shut down, displacing 4,608 workers. On September 10, URP workers received termination with immediate effect - 400 of 1,100 monthly-paid workers dismissed, the daily-paid component suspended entirely. The CSO recorded 12,000 job losses between April and September 2025.
In their place, the government promised 20,000 permanent positions through a National Recruitment Drive launched October 19, 2025, via the EmployTT platform. Phase 2 would add 50,000 jobs through private-sector partnerships. Over 110,000 Trinbagonians applied - 30,000 within the first 24 hours. As of late February 2026, 1,801 had been hired. On three-month contracts. Doing work the government said would replace make-work programmes.
How the Old Programmes Died
The government's rationale for eliminating CEPEP and URP was that they were instruments of political patronage rather than genuine employment. There was evidence for this. URP manager Feeroz Khan said 8,000 "ghost workers" had been removed from the payroll and that only approximately 20% of registered names ever actually showed up for work. CEPEP had been criticised for years as a rolling contract system where employment was distributed as political reward. But neither party can claim clean hands. Both the PNM and UNC used CEPEP and URP contracts as patronage tools when in government - distributing work through constituency networks, rewarding loyalists, punishing opponents. The UNC's own 2025 manifesto promised 50,000-plus jobs, then shut down programmes employing over 14,000 Trinbagonians. This is not a partisan failure. It is a structural one. Roughly 300 to 400 state board positions turn over with every change of government, and CEPEP/URP contracts followed the same pattern. Public employment in Trinidad and Tobago has always doubled as patronage, regardless of who holds office.
The terminations revealed their own governance problems. Over 360 CEPEP contracts had been renewed between April 14 and 24, 2025 - the final days before the April 28 general election - without Cabinet approval. These last-minute renewals created legal complications: workers now had contractual claims that must be honoured or defended in court. Whether legal action has been filed, and whether the government is settling or contesting, has not been made public.
Tobago was exempted. CEPEP and URP continue to operate on the island, with the THA spending $27.2 million on both programmes. The exemption has not been publicly explained.
The Recruitment Drive's Numbers
The Ministry of Works and Infrastructure received 28,000 applications. Approximately 6,800 applied for labourer positions. Mass screening ran from November 14 to 21, 2025. Cabinet approved 1,801 casual workers, deployed from December 2025 to highway maintenance, vegetation control, and drainage preparation. An additional 800 were expected from March 1, 2026. The Ministry is also separately filling 1,100 existing vacancies.
That makes approximately 2,600 hires against 20,000 promised - roughly 13%. Against 110,000 applications, the figure drops below 2%. No published selection criteria explain how those 2,600 were chosen from the 110,000. The screening process, scoring rubric, and basis for selection have not been made public.
The contract terms tell their own story. Workers were hired on three-month contracts with renewal "optional based on performance and ministry requirements." Their duties: fetching water, carrying tools, cutting grass, cleaning drains and sidewalks on day and night shifts. Former CEPEP workers who joined the new programme say the work is the same roadside labour they were doing before. The difference is that CEPEP paid on time every fortnight. The new programme does not.
Late payments have dogged the recruitment drive from the start. Some workers have been owed up to $6,000 - three fortnights of outstanding pay. Workers earn approximately $2,092 per fortnight after deductions. For workers who left one precarious programme and entered another, the distinction between "make-work" and "permanent employment" is not yet visible.
From 500 to 12
In Port of Spain, over 500 CEPEP and URP workers who had been cleaning drains and maintaining public spaces were dismissed. They were replaced by 12 staff from a new "National Programme for the Upkeep of Public Spaces." Mayor Chinua Alleyne warned of a sanitation crisis ahead of Carnival 2026.
From 500 to 12 is not a transition. It is a mass layoff - one new hire for every 42 workers terminated. The drains, bush, and public spaces that 500 people were maintaining now fall to 12. The physical environment of the capital absorbs the difference.
The Money
The 2026 budget established a $475 million Employment Fund and allocated a pre-existing $310 million Unemployment Fund - a combined $785 million to transition workers from short-term programmes to stable employment. Recruitment drive hires are paid from the Employment Fund.
Whether either fund is being disbursed at scale - to whom, at what rate - has not been publicly reported. When Finance Minister Tancoo was asked about spending details, he said: "I don't have that kind of information at my disposal at this time."
The opposition calculated that $475 million would support only $2,000 per month per worker for 20,000 positions - tight but viable for a single year. Tancoo called the $475 million an "initial sum," implying more would follow. The long-term arithmetic is where it gets difficult. Twenty thousand permanent positions carry salaries, benefits, pensions, and administrative overhead stretching decades. At an average loaded cost of $100,000 per position annually, the ongoing bill is $2 billion per year. Over 30-year careers, the total obligation exceeds $60 billion. The IMF projects GDP growth of 0.7% for 2026.
The Distinction Nobody Made Before
Minister of Public Administration Dominic Smith attempted to draw a line between the EmployTT platform and the National Recruitment Drive, telling reporters they were "not the same thing." This distinction had never been made before - not in the budget speech, not in the PM's announcement, not in any public communication before the 110,000 applications. The 30,000 people who applied on day one through EmployTT expected a recruitment drive. Being told afterward that they may have applied to something different is not a clarification. It is a redefinition.
Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles-Robinson called the programme a "farce" and a "publicity stunt," stating that 70,000 workers had been dismissed within 10 months while only 1,801 were hired, and demanding the Prime Minister account to the thousands still waiting.
What "Permanent" Means
The 20,000 positions were presented as permanent - a step up from CEPEP and URP's rolling contracts. But the 1,801 actually hired are on three-month contracts. Their duties are the same work CEPEP did. Their pay arrives late. Their renewal is not guaranteed. The word "permanent" has not yet attached to any position filled.
The government may yet deliver. The recruitment drive is less than six months old. Phase 2 has not begun. But the gap between the October announcement - 20,000 permanent positions, the end of make-work - and the March reality of 1,801 people on three-month contracts doing CEPEP work with late pay warrants scrutiny.
The 110,000 who applied are still waiting. The 15,000 who lost their CEPEP and URP income need answers. And the taxpayers being asked to fund what may become $2 billion in annual obligations need to know whether the numbers add up, or whether this is the same programme with a different name and a longer fiscal tail.
Sources
- Trinidad Guardian: "National Recruitment Drive falls short: 20,000 jobs promised, 1,801 people hired" (February 2026)
- Trinidad Guardian: "Government to replace CEPEP and URP with full-time jobs" (2025)
- Trinidad Guardian: "Late payments dog Govt's recruitment drive" (March 2026)
- Trinidad Guardian: "500 PoS workers sent home; mayor warns of sanitation crisis" (2026)
- Trinidad Guardian: "PM announces new national recruitment drive offering 20,000 jobs" (October 2025)
- Newsday: "Tancoo: $475M to help fund 20,000 new jobs" (October 2025)
- Trinidad Express: "10,500 CEPEP workers terminated" (June 2025)
- Trinidad Express: "URP workers terminated with immediate effect" (September 2025)
- Trinidad Express: "National Reforestation Programme shut down - 4,608 workers affected" (July 2025)
- Trinidad Express: "Opposition Leader: recruitment drive a farce" (2026)
- Newsday: "Only 20% of URP registered names showed up for work" (2025)
- CNC3: "EmployTT recruitment drive - 30,000 apply in 24 hours" (October 2025)
- Trinidad Guardian: "CEPEP contracts renewed days before election without Cabinet approval" (2025)
- Trinidad Guardian: "THA spending $27.2M on CEPEP and URP in Tobago" (2025)
- Ministry of Works and Infrastructure: Recruitment drive screening documentation (November 2025)
- EmployTT platform: employtt.gov.tt / drive.employtt.gov.tt