SIMMERING TENSION

The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) has suggested that normality in the public sector in the coming days will be dependent on the outcome of a meeting between trade unionists and the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service amid claims that the Government has breached the heads of agreement signed by the parties.

The meeting is set for next week Wednesday.

In a Gleaner interview on Tuesday, JCTU President Helene Davis Whyte said the union and the ministry were not able to reach a resolution last Thursday when the involved parties met.

She said that the finance and the public service ministry, through several circulars, instructed government ministries, departments and agencies not to make payments related to duty allowance and increments.

“Those were issues that were never discussed or agreed with the Government. So, it is in that context that we deem it to be a breach of the heads of agreement,” said Davis Whyte.

Added to that, she said there are also concerns related to issues involving the payment of mileage.

“They have sent out instructions to say payments should not be made. I have not had any information yet on the increments, but certainly, in respect to the duty allowance and the mileage, the various departments have made changes based on what these circulars have said, and so they have not been paying the duty allowance and aspects of mileage,” the union head said.

She said that increments, which are performance based, were due in 2022, but that instructions have been sent out not to pay any for the three-year implementation period.

Davis Whyte said that the JCTU has taken note of this and is “waiting to see” what will happen.

She said that while it is not immediately clear how many public sector workers are affected by the non-payment of mileage and duty allowance, workers are concerned.

Davis Whyte also indicated that there are several anomalies with the calculation of salaries.

She said at last Thursday’s meeting, it was agreed that workers would start by reporting issues to their local payroll offices, and if there is no resolution, it should be escalated to the finance ministry, through the unions.

Meanwhile, she said that the union is expected to be told at next Wednesday’s meeting whether the ministry will be accepting its representation to make the necessary corrections.

“When we get to that meeting, dependent on what is the outcome, ... there will be a determination as to whether workers are satisfied and, therefore, if normality in the public service will remain or whether workers will want us to move to some kind of action,” said Davis Whyte.

NOT YET BRIEFED

Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke told The Gleaner on Tuesday that he has not yet been briefed on the matter after recently returning to the island from Washington, where he attended the 2023 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund.

Meanwhile, the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), in an April 8 circular to members, said that it was “painfully” aware that some teachers were yet to receive their March salaries and that others are querying the accuracy of the amounts that were paid.

“We can unquestionably indicate that all senior teachers were incorrectly paid and are collectively owed millions,” the JTA communicated to its members.

The JTA said that “a myriad of other discrepancies” had also come to the fore and that it was working “tirelessly” to resolve the issues.

In an interview with Dionne Jackson Miller on Radio Jamaica’s Beyond the Headlines on Monday, Maureen Dwyer, acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, acknowledged that there were several discrepancies with teachers’ March salaries that had to be “manually” worked through because of the tight timeline to do payroll.

She said that the ministry had promised to pay all teachers, but that that did not materialise because of anomalies with the system.

She said that some 17,000 teachers are paid by the ministry, while 9,000 are bursar-paid.

“We were working with our partners at the Ministry of Finance and we underestimated the time that it would take. Nonetheless, in the end, we were able to pay most of our teachers towards the end of the month,” said Dwyer.

She said that even then, several banks had sent back salaries and that the ministry had to work to ascertain why, but noted that those teachers have since been paid.

Additionally, she said that the ministry has been “making strides” in terms of reducing late payments to teachers, but admitted, “We are not there yet.”

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com