JAMAICA URBAN Transit Company (JUTC) accountants will have tabulated by this Thursday, exactly how much redundancy money it will have to pay this Friday to 280 of its former employees who were sent home last week.
JUTC's Information Officer Errol Lee said the company already has the money in place and will have to assess the results of the decision before moving on to phase two of the recommendations put forward in a recent review by a team of Swedish transport experts.
"It's a bit too early to say what the next step will be, we'll have to assess the situation at each stage to see how it's panning out before we take further action," he said.
Suggestions made by the experts who were called in to assess the company after an audit done by KPMG-Peat Marwick deemed it technically insolvent, included last week's staff cut as well as a 90 per cent hike in bus fares; that priority be given to the cashless fare collection system to stem leakage and encourage frequent travellers; revised scheduling and revised costs for services including security.
The cost-cutting measures are designed to save the four-year-old state-owned bus company $700 million over the next 15 months, a change from reported daily losses of about $3.6 million and a negative worth as at February 2002 of $1.13 billion.
The company ended phase one of the restructuring with the redundancies last week. JUTC management 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.
