BY THE reckoning of Derrick Kellier, the Labour Minister, all should now be well at the construction site in Lucea, Hanover, where the Spanish Fiesta Group is now building a large hotel.

He by now would have completed a series of discussions with the top brass of Fiesta who came to Jamaica to iron out the issue which led to a riot at the site 10 days ago. The crux of those problems, Mr. Kellier seemed to suggest, was a failure of management.

First, the former managers of the project failed to adhere to guidelines laid down by the Labour Ministry, but the specifics of which we do not know. Apparently, too, the lack of water and a shortage of toilets at the site, which was what some of the grouse appears to have been about, have been dealt with. And, of course, sanitation is important business. Workers must have toilets and water to wash their hands.

Yet, we wonder whether it was primarily the incompetence of the former project manager that was responsible for last week's meltdown at the Fiesta facility. From this distance, it appears to be more than that; there is a tendency at some levels when differences develop to brand any and every reprimand as disrespect and to assume that the resolution to quarrels lies in violence. And there seems to be pertinent questions to be asked about how honest we are when inviting investors to the country; whether we tell them the truth about the cultural idiosyncrasies that sometimes have to be overcome before coaxing the finest qualities out of workers.

For instance, whatever else may have been the issue, last week's riot was triggered by a decision by the construction management to enhance security at the building site. They insisted that workers had to have their identification passes, which had to be checked before being let on to work.

Apparently, this regime demanded that people turn up earlier - a kind of discipline about which Jamaicans often balk, in which a wristwatch tends to be more of a fashion accessory than a utility. So a scuffle with some latecomers led to an employee being shot, which is just another example of this penchant towards force rather than reason in almost every conflict. Workers didn't just demonstrate, they looted and burnt cars.

If Fiesta were an isolated instance, we might have felt that it was merely silliness on the part of a manager who failed to pay heed. But there have been other issues at Fiesta, including the apparent conflict of issue involving the former chairman of the Hanover Parish Council, who had haulage contracts on the construction while presiding over a poor local authority that gave Fiesta a big discount on its building fees. Other hotel developments have also had labour problems and have faced awkward questions about their environmental and building permits.

It is unlikely, in our view, to be all their fault. It seems to us that Jamaican authorities are not doing something right - perhaps not telling foreign investors fully, or clearly, the circumstances under which they will have to operate and the behaviour that is expected of them. Nor do we discern a sufficient effort to educate Jamaica workers about the realities of the global market and about the competition for jobs.