Drivers hold strain as salary talks continue at MoBay Metro

Representatives from the National Workers Union (NWU) and the Ministry of Transport will again be meeting today with the management of the Montego Bay Metro Bus Company, in St James, to try to resolve the ongoing salary dispute between the company and its employees.

The first phase of the meeting got off to a late start on Wednesday, but the union representative reported that they covered a lot of ground during the discussions.

"Well we are still in discussions, the meeting has not ended. We will continue...at 10, when we will continue to dissect the documents to see where these errors as the management of Montego Bay Metro have said occurred," Alexander Nicholson, Assistant All-Island Supervisor at the NWU stated.

"So we are getting somewhere. We have started from November 2022 and we are now at March 2023."

In the meantime, bus drivers at the State-owned bus company again withdrew their services for several hours on Wednesday, after they discovered that they were not paid their salaries.

However, following the meeting, they were instructed by the union representative to return to work, as Montego Bay Metro has promised to address the payment of salaries today.

"Apparently salaries have not been paid out yet, the adjustment for the previous salary is still not compensated for and workers are up in arms about it, they are saying that we should give them some more time as the meeting is rescheduled for tomorrow (Thursday), so therefore we are definitely looking for this matter to be resolved, and if it is not resolved by tomorrow (Thursday) then the workers have to take whatever actions necessary," bus driver Michael Johnson told The Gleaner.

The drivers took strike action for almost two weeks after the management withdrew monies from their salaries shortly after informing them that several overpayments were made to their accounts.

They only returned to work on Tuesday to allow for talks.

- Hopeton Bucknor

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