Charles

Labour Minister Pearnel Charles has again asked the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) to intervene in the ongoing tussle between unions representing workers of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) and its management over outstanding payments following a job evaluation.

Just last week, Charles had sought a 28-day injunction from the Supreme Court to bar workers from going on strike.

Charles yesterday told The Gleaner this would be the second time the eight-year-old dispute would be going before the IDT.

"This time it is for the tribunal to rule on the settlement that was arrived at by the parties," he said.

He said the matter was referred to the IDT last Friday and should be up for discussion as early as this morning.

Hand down a decision

"We expect the tribunal to listen to both parties and interpret the document and hand down a decision which we expect will finally conclude the issue," he said.

In May 2008, JPS and the unions had arrived at an agreement under the Job Evaluation and Compensa-tion Review Exercise, which saw the company paying out a sum of approximately $3.5 billion, $1.2 billion of which was paid towards taxes on the workers behalf. The remainder went to employees.

However, since the payout, the four unions, which represent workers at the JPS, are contending that the employees are owed for overtime work and redundancy adjustments for the 2001-2007 period. This is based on their interpretation of Clause Three of the heads of agreement, which differs from the company's interpretation.

Clause Three of the agreement stated, "Any attendant cost associated with the classification exercise, for example, anomalies, will be honoured by the company."

According to the unions, this meant JPS would also be responsible for paying the workers for redundancy and overtime payments which, they said, were not included in the $2.3-billion payout. JPS is, however, contending that the payment was inclusive of such expenses.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com