Trial dates set in police overtime battle with Gov’t
Published:Friday | December 17, 2021 | 7:19 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
The trial in the contentious wage issue between the police and the Government was yesterday set for April 4 and 5, 2022, but the disgruntled cops remain hopeful that the matter will be settled before then.
The officers had taken the Government to court over its failure to reportedly pay millions in overtime sums from as far back as 2008.
Both the Government and the Jamaica Police Federation (JPF) had been exploring a possible settlement of the vexing issue, but the cops rejected a proposal from the Government to only compensate them for overtime work since 2019.
JPF Chairman Corporal Rohan James yesterday said that, despite the trial dates – and a pretrial hearing set for March 10, 2022 – the police remain open to a reasonable settlement offer.
“We have extended an olive branch and we are still amenable to an out-of-court settlement if the Government so desires, but one thing we can say for sure is that we will not compromise the hard-earning men and women of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
“We are expecting that the Government, since they are relying on equity, they must come with clean hands and they must be prepared to make that compensation and we are prepared to afford a particular amount of time and we will not be not be going outside of the four-year period for full compensation,” he said, adding that the police are confident of their chances, should the matter be decided in court.
James said that the Government was not challenging the veracity of the JPF affidavit, but has taken issue with the interpretation of the contractual agreement and is contending whether the police are entitled to overtime payments and whether the Government had agreed to such compensation.
“We know that what the Government has put before the court is a red herring, and we will not allow ourselves to be daunted by the fact that the Government is buying time,” he said.
The JPF had filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service and the Ministry of National Security, seeking payments for extra hours worked outside of their 40-hour workweek.
The Government, in its defence, is however claiming that the police had agreed to a 50-hour week until a proper system was put in place to capture the lawmen’s overtime hours, but James said that is an issue for which the police will be seeking a declaration from the court.
“We had signed a two-year contractual agreement for which the Government has failed to honour its obligation to ensure that the mechanism is in place to properly capture the hours worked and for the compensation to be given to the men and women of the rank and file. So, at this time, we are asking the court to make a declaration on the constitutionality and the legality of the Government’s failure,” he said.