JDF mobilised to help with water restoration
Published:Wednesday | May 11, 2022 | 12:22 PM
The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) has been mobilised to support the National Water Commission (NWC) to restore critical supplies to facilities such as hospitals, schools and other essential services.
The army says its Up Park Camp Well was rendered inoperable arising from the industrial action taken by NWC workers.
The army says water has now been restored to the camp and surrounding communities.
In an interview with The Gleaner this morning, Information Minister Robert Morgan said that the directive was issued by the Government to have the two state-led institutions collaborate.
More than 500,000 customers have been impacted as more than 2,000 NWC workers, including managers, yesterday walked off the job.
Morgan said that the NWC and JDF are collaborating to come to a solution.
More than 1,000 NWC facilities have been affected as a result of the industrial action, including major infrastructures serving the country's key urban centres.
The workers have taken industrial action over an outstanding reclassification exercise as well as the ongoing public-sector compensation review by the government.
The reclassification exercise has been unsettled since 2008.
Morgan said that unions representing the workers and the Government are still at the negotiation table.
Part III subsection (9) (5) of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act forbids essential service workers from taking industrial action.
It says any industrial action taken in contemplation or furtherance of an industrial dispute by an essential service worker is unlawful unless the dispute was reported to the minister and he/she failed to refer the dispute to a tribunal for settlement or give directions in writing to the parties to settle the dispute if he/she was not satisfied that all attempts were previously made.
However, if the dispute was referred to the tribunal for settlement and the tribunal failed to make an award or settle the matter within 21 days, industrial action by essential service workers is not deemed unlawful.
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