Devon Evans, Gleaner Writer
OCHO RIOS, St. Ann
THE JAMAICA Employers Federation (JEF) has described the self-styled 'sick-out' by the police to demand better salaries, as a step in the wrong direction.
Executive Director of JEF, Mrs. Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd said the police must rethink their action and behave in a rational manner.
"What I do agree with is that if there are issues you would like to discuss , and you do think there are problems whether with pay or with facilities, then discuss that in a rational manner," she said, in an interview with The Gleaner at the JEF's annual convention in Ocho Rios yesterday.
Mrs. Coke-Lloyd said, however, that sick-outs and other forms of industrial action will only serve to compromise the standard that the police have committed themselves to maintain and will make people lose respect for them.
The JEF executive director warned the law officers to be careful of the examples they set as these, according to her, "could come back to haunt them". She said the police should be aware that they are part of an essential service.
The federated ranks of the Jamaica Police Federation ,however, continued with their protest action. Up to late Thursday evening, Sub-officer in charge of the St. Ann's Bay Police Station, Inspector Angeline Minto tried her best to ensure that members of the public who visited the station received some attention.
This, after most police personnel who should have reported for duty called in sick for the second consecutive day in solidarity with their other colleagues islandwide.
"We are holding on, but I don't know for how long," Inspector Minto said, when asked how she is coping with the shortage of personnel.
There were no uniformed policeman or woman on the streets of the parish capital today, except for those who were doing court duties at the Circuit and Resident Magistrate's Court at the St. Ann's Bay Courthouse.
