Unions, NWC reach tentative agreement

THE FIVE unions representing workers at the National Water Commission (NWC), and the company’s management, have reached an agreement which has averted threats of industrial action in heat-parched Jamaica and especially the Corporate Area which is under heavy water restriction.

But normality is not guaranteed until the parties meet again on Monday and sign off on what has been agreed in principle, president of the National Workers Union (NWU), Granville Valentine, told The Gleaner yesterday.

For now, he said good sense will prevail.

“We are just coming out of the meeting with the Water Commission and the five unions re the compensation, reclassification exercise. We are pretty satisfied where we are at in terms of the understanding and agreement and we have placed some major positions on the table,” Valentine said.

“One, we have placed on the table the minimum level of increase (given) of which we are very clear that there is no understanding of 20 per cent; and we have proposed that the company should consider the next level for any person who would have fallen in the 20 per cent region. We are also looking at the travelling officers and doing the comparison to ensure that travelling officers are not worse off; we are looking at the entry level of the level ones up to four, and where the conversion takes place at the minimum level,” Valentine told The Gleaner.

Continuing he said: “We are looking at how the increment scale would affect workers and to ensure that it is done in a fair and just manner.

“The long and short is that we have made progress, we are expecting to have the parties reaching certain agreements and possibly signing off on Monday. I think it was a very good day and by and large we have some agreements in principle. The NWC management and Ministry of Finance should go back and crunch figures to ensure that we are all on the same page and to demonstrate in the presentation, exactly what should be the outcome,” said Valentine.

Workers were called to a meeting on Tuesday at the Ministry of Labour to discuss the concerns which threatened to cut the scheduled flow of the precious commodity in customers’ taps. They reconvened on Thursday and discussions continued well into the afternoon yesterday.

The unions last Saturday served a 72-hour notice of strike action on the management that industrial action may be imminent following a breakdown of discussions between them and the management over the reclassification and compensation exercise.

Among the concerns of the workers, who had salary increases converted at a minimum of 20 to 25 per cent over three years without agreement with the unions, and how the conversation was done to align workers between levels one to level four. Also a 13-point scale that was imposed without discussion with unions from a five-point scale.

Efforts to get a comment from NWC President Mark Barnett and Finance Minister Nigel Clarke were unsuccessful, up to press time.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com