Devon Evans, Gleaner Writer
OCHO RIOS, St. Ann:
THE JAMAICA Employers' Federation (JEF) says that while it supports the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Government and public sector employees, there is deep concern about the strategies to be introduced when the agreement comes to an end.
"We would think the MoU will be intact but the only concern the JEF has is that in 2006, will the workers feel that they need to make up for that so-called loss in income, because they were pegged to a three per cent?" asked JEF Executive Director Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd.
She was speaking in an interview with The Gleaner at the JEF's 23rd annual convention, which was held at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios last weekend.
Mrs. Coke-Lloyd said the JEF was deeply concerned that the workers might be thinking of making up for those losses and that she hopes the government has already started its own initiative and has begun looking at the strategies to manage those initiatives.
SUPPORT FORTHCOMING
Asked whether the JEF would support an extension of the MoU after it expires in 2006, she said if an extension was a part of Government's new initiative, the federation would have no problem in offering its support.
The JEF executive director said the current MoU seems to be working and that if it is able to continue to protect the jobs of efficient and productive employees and not pay for work not done, then it has the federation's full support. "What JEF does not want to have is inefficiency," Mrs. Coke-Lloyd said.
