Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
Danny Roberts
THE ALREADY shaky talks between Government and trade unions over a successor to last year's Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) could be endangered by possible electricity rate increases.
The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) has submitted a claim of almost $192 million to the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) to recover losses incurred during the passage of hurricanes Dennis and Wilma last year.
But Danny Roberts, vice-president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) said yesterday that such an action by JPS would have to be factored in the new MoU or wage restraint pact being hammered out between Government and member unions of the JCTU.
FINAL ANALYSIS
"I could not accept that (a likely increase in electricity rates). Government needs to understand that in the final analysis, if these costs are passed on to the
consumers ... the demand for wage increase would be higher," Mr. Roberts told The Sunday Gleaner.
Last year, the MoU came under pressure as a result of increases
in electricity bills and other costs arising from spikes in the price of imported
oil. At that time the JPS submitted a claim of $1.5 billion for damage
incurred during the passage of Hurricane Ivan. The OUR, however, approved only
a third of the claim.
But trade unions balked at the price rises and demanded compensation for public
sector employees in the form of hardship allowance as well as subsidised fares
on government-run buses.
Against that background, Roberts warned yesterday: "We must make the demand
on Government to ensure that it regard the performance and efficiency of these
utility companies, to ensure that they do not pass on their inefficiencies to
the consumers," he said.
He continued: "And where there are inescapable increases arising from
oil prices or other factors, they (utility companies) must absorb a significant
portion of these costs."
Mr. Roberts said any new MoU would have to take into account factors such as
increases in utility bills and natural disasters, among other things.
"Those factors would have to ensure that we calculate as part of our demands
for wage increase for public sector workers, an amount that is likely to take
into account the worst anticipated scenario arising from the effect of exogenous
factors," he said.
Government has offered public sector workers an increase of 20 per cent of
the wage fund for the 2006-2008 contract period. This represents a little over
$12 billion.
