By Balford Henry, News EditorTHE JAMAICA Public Service Company (JPSCo) said last night that a strike called by two of four unions representing its employees was having only limited effect on its operations. But, there are indications the strike could expand today.
"This afternoon's industrial action by employees has had limited effect on the company's operations which have continued as a result of the commitment and dedication of employees represented by the Managers' Association and the Union of Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Personnel (UTASP), as well as non-unionised workers and some employees represented by the National Workers' Union (NWU) and the Bustamante Industrial Trades Union (BITU)," a statement from the company said.
The strike was called by the NWU and the BITU after the management of the JPSCo failed to meet their request for a positive response to claims for settlement of the results of a recent job evaluation exercise by noon.
Instead, the company wrote to the Minister of Labour, Horace Dalley, referring the dispute back to his Ministry. The company said the BITU and the NWU had refused to withdraw their strike ultimatum (which expired at 3:00 p.m. on Monday) and that the timing of the submission of their claims for a new labour agreement was still uncertain.
EX-PARTE SUMMONS
Mr. Dalley immediately went to the Supreme Court with an ex-parte summons heard by Justice Basil Reid.
Justice Reid ordered that the JPSCo employees be restrained for a period of 30 days from commencing or continuing industrial action, "in the form of withdrawing their labour or otherwise."
This was the second time this year that a Minister of Labour had obtained an injunction against workers taking industrial action. In late August, Mr. Dalley's predecessor, Dean Peart, obtained a similar injunction which prevented a strike at WINDALCO (West Indies Alumina Company, formerly Alcan Jamaica) over a pay issue.
On that occasion, the WINDALCO workers did not strike after their 72-hour strike ultimatum expired. However, the situation at the JPSCo seems to be more complex.
The injunction obtained in the Supreme Court yesterday restrains only one set of workers - those represented by the BITU and the NWU - from taking industrial action. Last night, UTASP called a meeting of its members at the company to decide what steps were to be taken today.
UTASP's general secretary, Reg Ennis, said last night that the delegates had decided to stay on the job, pending the outcome of a meeting with the management which has been scheduled for 10:00 this morning.
"We agreed with the request of the company for a meeting tomorrow, so we couldn't have taken any action today. But, the fact is that we have been negotiating for one whole year - the longest we've ever negotiated - and we're not getting anywhere. Tomorrow we will have to decide whether these talks have now broken down and whether we need to take action," Mr. Ennis said.
If UTASP joins the strike, it would have severe consequences for the company, as the union represents most of the company's technical/engineering staff who are more closely associated with the generation of power than the BITU/NWU units, which comprise mostly clerical staff.
Nothing was heard from the JPS Managers Association, which is also involved the dispute with the company, yesterday.
The unions want those eligible for pay increases arising from a recent job evaluation to be paid the increases by Christmas and retroactive to January 1, 2001. The company wants the payments to be retroactive to January 1, 2002, instead.
However, the more burning issue affecting all four unions seems to be the company's proposal to offer salaries to its employees at 50 per cent of the market range. The unions are protesting that this would mean that salary levels at JPSCo would fall well below their current top five position.
But, the company insisted yesterday that its compensation packages were still among the most competitive in the Jamaica and that it was not proposing to change that and wanted to remain "an employer of choice", through improvements to compensation packages based on a "performance incentive programme."
