NHT, union to meet amid sickout by workers

The management of the National Housing Trust (NHT) is to meet with the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) after dozens of workers staged a sickout on Monday. 

The meeting is expected to take place on Tuesday, an email from NHT's Assistant General Manager, Donnetta Russell, said. 

Several Gleaner sources at the State agency confirmed that workers began calling in sick as early as 6 a.m. following an advisory from NHT Staff Association President Shanna Whyte on Sunday.   

The NHT, in a press release, confirmed that “a significant number of our employees, called in sick today,” crippling several services. 

The workers are protesting an outstanding job evaluation matter after insisting that the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service had been unresponsive to the exercise and failed to honour its commitment to do so. 

The evaluation exercise began in 2018 and was completed in 2021.

A report was generated and documents sent to the ministry for final processing, The Gleaner was told. 

However, the UAWU said the ministry has failed to finalise and signoff on the process. 

On Monday, Russell acknowledged that NHT did, in fact, receive a response from the finance ministry on Friday regarding the job evaluation exercise. 

“The management will now meet with your union representatives by Tuesday, May 30 to further discuss implementation... ,” Russell said in the email. 

Last year May, workers walked off the job in protest over the same outstanding job evaluation process. 

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