US Embassy hopeful for 'mutually acceptable' resolution between security company, guards
Union says 'Price must be right'
Published:Wednesday | November 15, 2023 | 6:33 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter -
The United States (UA) Embassy in Kingston, speaking on the impasse between security provider G4S GuardsmanJV and its employees, who staged a sickout Tuesday, say the US government is a strong supporter of workers rights and collective bargaining.
The embassy was responding to questions from The Gleaner about the industrial action taken Tuesday in the form of a sickout by some 60 guards employed to at its location.
The embassy said G4S Guardsman JV (Joint Venture) is contracted by the Department of State to provide professional security guard services.
“The US Embassy hopes that G4S Guardsman JV and their employees will soon come to a mutually acceptable resolution to their labour dispute,” the embassy said, adding that it was not party to the discussions.
The US Embassy did not directly comment on how its operations were affected by Tuesday's sickout.
The guards are represented by the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE).
Following a meeting yesterday afternoon with the relevant stakeholders, Vincent Morrison, president of UCASE, told The Gleaner that the guards have been instructed to return to work Wednesday (today) for the 7 am shift.
Additionally, Morrison said the next meeting is set for Friday where discussions are to continue in the wage negotiations.
Morrison told The Gleaner the price must be right.
“We just left a meeting at the Ministry of Labour… . The process continues. We will be setting up a meeting for Friday,” Morrison said.
He told The Gleaner that negotiations started July 1 and the offers made by the company were "totally unacceptable".
“For example, on wages… . They are asking for a five-year contract… our position is we are not against a five-year contract but the price must be right… the offer they made is 10 per cent in year one, zero per cent in the second and five, five, five per cent in the last three years. We are saying that is not good enough,” Morrison said.
According to Morrison, the proposed increase is not in line with the cost of living and inflation rate.
“We are saying there are a number of other areas where they made solemn promise to the workers over the years and they have not fulfilled these promises,” Morrison said.
He told The Gleaner that the arrangement for the guards' group life insurance was unheard of.
“The arrangement they have in place is insurance coverage for two hours before and two hours after. Now, we are saying that can’t continue because insurance coverage ought to be 24 hours. That is the practice in the country. I don’t know which insurance carrier in Jamaica is carrying that sort of arrangement,” Morrison said.
He said there are several other areas of contention that have cause restiveness.
“Things like meal allowance, you talking about five years, J$1,000 in year one and J$1,050 for the rest of the contract… in spite of the fact that they are working for the US, all the figures are quoted in Jamaican dollars,” Morrison said.
The emergency meeting yesterday was reportedly chaired by Michael Kennedy, chief director of industrial relations at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
“We really want the company to sit down with us and in a serious way let us resume the discussions so that at the end we can come up with a decent arrangement for the 210 security guards employees to the facility, that is our objective,” Morrison said, hoping that common sense will prevail.