Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer

A Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government will not be supporting the institution of a 40-hour work week for the police if it forms the next government, party officials say.

Speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum yesterday, senior party members said while many policemen and women are, in fact, overworked, a 40-hour work week is not a practical way of dealing with labour issues and corruption prevention in the force.

Rank-and-file police have been advocating for a systemic 40-hour work week to prevent overwork as many police personnel are forced to work in excess of 70 hours per week for meagre salaries, the Police Federation pinpoints.

But JLP information spokesman, Senator Dwight Nelson, says the move would be impractical because of the insufficient cadre of the force. The Jamaica Constabulary Force is made up of some 8,000 police personnel.

"You cannot implement effectively a 40-hour work week in the police force with the present numbers. The numbers have to increase significantly if you are going to introduce a 40-hour normal work week in the police force," says Nelson.

Productivity is low

Spokesperson for commerce and investment promotion, Shirley Williams, agrees, noting that while the police were overworked, reports have shown that their productivity is low, and so, a 40-hour work week would not be a pragmatic answer to the problem.

"A 40-hour week is critical and important, but at the same time, we have to ensure that each man is producing at the level that he is expected to produce, and we have to pay them in keeping with the terms and conditions of their employment," she comments.

Meanwhile, the JLP says it will maintain the use of a Memorandum of Understanding with the public sector to deal with wage negotiations between government and public servants.

"It is these processes thatallow the public sector wage negotiations to come to agreements without any serious dislocations, and the Jamaica Labour Party will continue to respect those processes," says Senator Nelson.

The JLP also says an audit of employees in the public sector will be done, if it becomes the next government, to determine whether public entities are overstaffed, as suggested by some critics of the public sector.

"The results of that audit will determine where we go from that point," he said.