APPROXIMATELY 280 employees of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) were made redundant yesterday, under a restructuring exercise recommended by a team of Swedish transport experts last year.
The Swedes were asked to audit the Government-owned bus company, after it was declared technically insolvent by a review done by KPMG Peat Marwick, the management consulting firm, in July 2002.
The JUTC said that the redundant workers represented eight per cent of its workforce of 3,300.
According to a statement from the management, yesterday's redundancies formed part of efforts to restructure and streamline the operations of the company, in order to make it viable and improve efficiency and viability.
The final decision followed several lengthy meetings between the management and the two unions representing the workers the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) for the hourly-paid, and the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) for its supervisory staff.
The company had initially proposed to lay off the workers, in which case their positions would not be terminated and they would not be paid redundancy unless they claimed it after 120 days. The unions rejected that proposal and demanded redundancy for the workers. The company eventually agreed to pay the minimum allowed under the Employment (Termination and Redundancy Payments) Act, which is two weeks pay for each year of service plus notice pay. The JUTC is four years old. The payments will be made on February 7.
Some of the workers made redundant yesterday felt that their exit was politically motivated. The company has been haunted by claims that workers were initially recruited via a process favouring supporters of the governing People's National Party (PNP). But the claim was denied by the management.
The company said that the restructuring was being implemented in phases, across the board, and that its corporate level had been reduced from 121 to 81, in the process, including the elimination of one vice presidency.
The restructuring is expected to be completed by March 31.
