Displaced MBMBC commuters facing high transportation cost

WESTERN BUREAU:

Commuters in western Jamaica who are being impacted by a withdrawal of service by drivers employed to the Montego Bay Metro Bus Company (MBMBC) are unlikely to see a resumption in service soon as the union representing the drivers and the company are still at odds following their latest meeting on Wednesday.

“It is so sad that they cannot come to an amicable agreement because hundreds of persons, including students, depend on the buses for affordable transportation,” said Marcia Reid, of Sandy Bay, in Hanover. “The bus is the main mode of transport for me and my two children, who attend high school in Montego Bay.”

According to Reid, when the family travels by bus, the round-trip fare for the day is $360 (mother $160 and the children J$200) while using alternative transport costs them $1,220 for the same round-trip each day (mother $500 and the children $720) – an additional $860 each day.

Angered by a decision by the MBMBC to deduct monies the company claim was overpaid to them following a recent compensation review by the Ministry of Finance, the drivers are contending that the monies were a result of a negotiated settlement between their union, the National Workers Union (NWU), and the Ministry of Finance, so the MBMBC had no right to make the deductions and wants the bus company to provide them with documentation to justify the deductions awaiting confirmation.At a meeting between the management of the MBMBC and Alexander Nicholson, the acting island supervisor of the National Workers Union (NWU), the company reportedly agreed that it had blundered as it relates to the deductions, blaming categorisation issues.

“In the meeting, the general manager (Shaune-Gaye Brown) said that there was an error by Montego Bay Metro as the workers were placed at Bond-4, and should have been placed at Bond-5, and that is what caused the discrepancy,” said Nicholson. “So we, along with their chairman (Colin Murray) said, ‘ok, if that is so, let’s put back the workers where they are supposed to be on the work scale until everything is sorted out’.”

“We agreed verbally for the drivers to go back to work, but the general manager said she had to get the agreement in writing,” said Nicholson. “We informed her that she never received a written document when she made the deductions from the salaries of the workers, so why is she now calling for a written document?”

Nicholson said Brown told him that she was awaiting confirmation from the Ministry of Finance’s transformation unit for the information, which she promised would then be given to him. However, he said he subsequently got a call from her saying she could not give him the documents, citing confidentiality issues.

Repeated efforts by The Gleaner to contact Brown since Wednesday’s meeting failed as her office says she is unavailable. When Chairman Murray was contacted following the meeting, he said he was not prepared to discuss the matter at that time but promised that he would call back, but he never did. Repeated attempts to reach him since then have failed.

The bus company, the only state-owned transportation system in western Jamaica, serves commuters in the parishes of St James, Trelawny, and Hanover.