Senator Dwight Nelson (right), president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), and Keith Comrie, asssistant general secretary, arrive at Jamaica House for a meeting with Prime Minister P.J. Patterson yesterday. The JCTU members met with Mr. Patterson to discuss the police salary dispute. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
GOVERNMENT IS proposing to pay the rank-and-file members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) a one-time payment of $300 million, The Gleaner learned last night.
The money would amount to each of the 8,000 policemen and women, notwithstanding rank, receiving more than $35,000 each.
The proposal was made following a meeting between Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and labour leaders yesterday in which all parties agreed not to breach a wage-
capping agreement. They were, however, hopeful that a solution would be found to the impasse between Government and the Police Federation.
Information reaching The Gleaner last night was that federation officials were in a militant mood, scoffing at what they feel is not a good-faith offer. The federation is seeking a 47 per cent salary hike which the Government has rejected on the grounds that it would breach the three per cent cap on salaries that is in place for public sector employees under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
But the Police Federation has maintained that it is not bound by the 14-month-old MoU, which it did not sign.
Yesterday's meeting at Jamaica House was in response to a breakdown in talks between the federation and the Finance Ministry.
The Prime Minister reaffirmed his full support for the MoU,
noting that the Government would not be taking any decision that would result in a breach of the contract.
But in a release issued from Jamaica House, Mr. Patterson instructed Fitz Jackson, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, to undertake an examination of those areas of the wage claim put forward by the Police Federation that were consistent with the preservation of the mow.
Although trade union leaders present at yesterday's meeting opposed an increase in the wage bill or allowance of any public sector group, they indicated that there was a basis for a settlement of the dispute without breaching the MoU.
"We are pretty confident that the government and the Police Federation will be able to find a basis for a settlement, which does not breach the MoU," Wane Jones, president of the Jamaica Civil Service Association told The Gleaner following the Jamaica House meeting.
"We have said it clearly, the wage bill must remain as it were at the start of the MoU."
