Don't let public suffer more, PM urges NWC workers

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has appealed to striking National Water Commission (NWC) workers to return to work because they now have the attention of the government regarding their "valid concerns". 

"Get back to manning our water stations and returning water, this essential commodity, to our citizens, our business, to our schools, hospitals and all our endeavours," Holness said today at a leadership retreat in Hanover for members of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation that he leads. 

It's the head of government's first public comments on the industrial action taken by more than 2,000 NWC workers over a reclassification exercise that's been outstanding since 2008, and the ongoing review of public sector compensation. 

"We do understand that there may be issues of trust and confidence involved in the relationship between the workers and the government," Holness admitted. 

He noted that he had be careful with his choice of words given the ongoing negotiations between the NWC and the unions representing the workers at the Labour Ministry.

Holness continued: "We acknowledge that at some point the workers would have to get the attention of the government and I believe that the attention has been gotten. We are in negotiations. ...Having that now being established, that we are negotiating, that we are discussing coming to conclusion, and hopefully solutions, that it would be in the interest of all that the water supply is returned."

According to Holness, "there is no need for the public to continue to suffer". 

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister says he has sought a legal opinion from Attorney General Dr Derrick McKoy on whether NWC and its workers are classified as essential workers. 

"Jamaica is still a country of law and order, and once its classification has been established/confirmed, the government will determine how it proceeds," said a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister. 

Up to 95 per cent of the NWC's roughly 600,000 customers have been affected by water lock-offs. Dozens of businesses, government departments and schools have been forced to curtail their operations as the strike goes through a second day. 

But several of the NWC's systems are being put back in operation the Labour Ministry said in a statement this afternoon. 

The ministry said negotiations, which resumed at 10 this morning are still underway. 

"The parties are locked in discussions while fine tuning the way forward with the job evaluation exercise and alignment of the NWC to the new compensation structure," the statement said. 

Labour Minister Karl Samuda upset the public after claiming in Parliament yesterday that water had returned to a "great degree" to customers, a position he retracted in the House this afternoon after being contradicted by the NWC's president Mark Barnett. 

The unions involved in the negotiations are the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers, National Workers' Union, NWC Executive Staff Association, Union of Public and Private Employees and Bustamante Industrial Trade Union.

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