NWC workers take industrial action

More than 2,000 workers at the National Water Commission (NWC) are reportedly on strike over an outstanding reclassification exercise as well as the ongoing public sector compensation review. 

The impact on NWC services is not clear.  

General Secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers, Helene Davis Whyte, says it's a "total lockdown" across the island as staff from most levels, including management, are demonstrating or not turning up for work. 

She says the workers are "frustrated" and almost "in despair" over the reclassification issue that has been outstanding since 2008. 

Telephone calls to the NWC president Mark Barnett have gone unanswered. 

In a statement to The Gleaner in April, Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke said that the Government was embarking on an ambitious policy of restructuring of public-sector compensation.

This policy reform, according to the finance minister, will create a new compensation system that is simple, fair, consistent, transparent, efficient, fiscally sustainable and that better allows the Government to attract and retain the talent needed to run a modern bureaucracy.

Clarke said the Government is engaged in consultations with unions and bargaining groups.

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