Robert Royer, Gleaner Writer
AFTER NEARLY 18 months of negotiations the membership of the Jamaica Police Federation yesterday unanimously voted to accept the Government's latest wage offer.
General secretary of the Federation, Corporal Hartley Stewart, told The Gleaner that 90 per cent of the delegates present at yesterday's meeting at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, voted by secret ballot to accept the wage offer. Two-thirds of the total delegate were present at the meeting.
Settlement of the long-running impasse came after police negotiators held a last-ditch meeting with Prime Minister P.J. Patterson last month. The matter shifted to the Prime Minister after the police decided that talks brokered by Fitz Jackson, State Minister for Finance, were futile.
Government had maintained that it was constrained by the terms of an agreement with public sector employee's trade unions and, therefore, could not offer the police the over 40 per cent wage increase they were claiming.
Some of the benefits accepted at yesterday's meeting include a one-off payment of $50,000 to each member of the approximatley 7,000 rank-and-file members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. They will also receive a housing benefit, which was initiated by the Prime Minister.
LONG-TERM BENEFITS
"The benefits are very important to our membership, particularly long-term benefits," explained Federation chairman Corporal Raymond Wilson. He said the
federation's executive would next meet with the Government to sign off on the wage agreement.
The finer details of the wage agreement will be disclosed then, Wilson said.
Wage negotiations between the parties is due to begin again next April.
