Businesses, productivity suffer

THE HAND of violent unrest yesterday stretched outward from the hotbed of West Kingston, dealing a telling blow to business in other sections of the Corporate Area and St. Catherine, on the first full working day since the escalation of civil conflict last Saturday.

Productivity fell victim to panic and precaution, as business places in the Corporate Area reported low staff turn-outs yesterday morning due to roadblocks mounted by demonstrators on a number of major roads.

By 11 am, it was clear that the ill winds of the downtown war had infiltrated the previously unaffected air-conditioned corridors of corporations in the central business district of New Kingston. In quick succession, offices there put plans in motion to close operations by early afternoon.

Life of Jamaica (LOJ) on Barbados Avenue was one of the first offices to announce its intentions to close early.

"Our advice is that things are likely to get worse and we don't want to take any chances. The safety of our staff is really paramount at this point in time," explained LOJ President, Milverton Reynolds, in announcing that the nearly 300 employees there would be sent home early. "Very little business is being conducted now any way," he added.

Frozen

Meanwhile, downtown King-ston remained like a city frozen in time since last Saturday, with those businesses which ventured the risk of opening promptly locking shop by midday and sending staff home.

Jimmy Joseph managing director Joseph's on King Street, was among those who chose to open at the regular time yesterday, though admittedly not expecting business as usual.

"We're just seeing how it goes," he told The Gleaner. However, by early afternoon Joseph's too had pulled down its shutters for the day.

Mr. Azan, owner of the Azans chain of stores said he decided to keep his downtown outlets at Beckford Street, Princess Street and South Parade closed for the day after his managers went to open shop yesterday morning and found the entire downtown area deserted.

"I'm playing a wait-and-see game for the (outlet in the) Cross Roads area," he told The Gleaner shortly after 11 am. "I may not go beyond half-day for the safety of the staff to get back home," he said, indicating that employees at Cross Roads, as well as the approximately 100 workers at the downtown branches would be paid wages for the full day because "it wasn't their fault."

Scotia Bank closed its branches in downtown Kingston at noon. Marie Powell, general manager for Sales and Marketing at Scotia Centre told The Gleaner these branches had had "very few customers in most cases" when they opened for business yesterday morning.

Other banks also closed early, hopeful of resuming business today, including the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) which curtailed operations at 11 am.

By 3 pm the shroud of involuntary idleness had enveloped virtually all major business places and offices in the Corporate Area, including the usually lively 'hip strip' of Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston with its spectrum of fast food restaurants.

The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) with its headquarters located downtown at Harbour Street was only able to trade for one hour yesterday rather than the usual two and a half hours of trading. As a result, only 35 transactions were made, down from a high of 140 transactions in recent weeks.

Over at Duhaney Park Plaza, in Kingston 20, where the Shoppers' Fair and Photo Max shops had suffered damaged from protesters earlier in the day people could be seen queuing at the window of the Duhaney Chicken and Wholesale to buy meat and other grocery items while the rest of the plaza had closed for the day.

James Chen, director of the Jamaica Macaroni Company, took up watch outside his business place on Valentine Drive off Red Hills Road while a joint police and military team cleared the last remnants of the roadblocks that had been mounted by demonstrators early in the morning. Mr. Chen, who told The Gleaner that only 10 per cent of his employees had been able to get to work yesterday, said he was making sure that the road was "perfectly clear" for his employees to leave for home.

Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica was forced to postpone its Annual Economic Seminar scheduled for today (Tuesday) until Monday July 23.

Back to News