JCTU to respond on salary issues

The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) is aiming to issue a formal response to the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service in a matter of days regarding a draft agreement between the two parties over outstanding issues on the Government’s compensation restructuring exercise.

Following a recent meeting between a team from the JCTU and the finance ministry, the board of the confederation has reviewed the draft agreement coming out of those talks and is preparing a formal response which is to be delivered this week to the Ministry of Finance.

“We have a negotiating team that takes its mandate from the board of the JCTU and we would have gone into those discussions attempting to execute the mandate of the board. Now we are obligated to report back to the board which we did this Saturday,” said St Patrice Ennis, president of the JCTU.

“We have not yet responded formally to the Ministry of Finance with respect to its draft and so we are to look at whether what we spoke about is reflected in that draft and also whether we properly executed the mandate,” he said.

Quizzed about aspects of the compensation restructuring system that are slated to take effect in April, Ennis said the finance ministry had indicated that overtime retroactive payment would be paid this month.

He said the ministry had also indicated that increment would be paid in April.

Ennis said all appointed persons who work in central government are eligible for the increment once they perform satisfactorily or achieved additional qualification.

10-day ultimatum

At the beginning of March, the JCTU issued a 10-day ultimatum to the finance ministry to meet with the group to settle outstanding matters under the compensation-review exercise.

In a letter dated November 2, 2023, the JCTU had indicated that there was agreement on all items except for the payment of increment for the period 2022 to 2025. The confederation had also asked that circular number 28 from the finance ministry, regarding travelling, should be withdrawn.

At the same time, Leighton Johnson, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), said a technical team comprising representatives from the JTA, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education will meet to ensure that the calculations done by each group for graduate and remote allowances are identical.

“What we anticipate is that this technical committee meeting will triangulate the figures to ensure that the chaos that took place earlier in 2023 at the implementation of the new compensation regime does not recur when salaries are being disbursed this month,” he said.

He noted that the graduate and remote allowances will be paid this month and 60 per cent of the retroactive sums from April 1, 2022 will be paid in August and the balance of 40 per cent disbursed in December.