Board member in HR post temporarily, says railway corporation boss
Published:Sunday | October 3, 2021 | 10:20 AM
Jovan Johnson, Senior Staff Reporter
The Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC) says the appointment of Kemesha Harrison as the human resource manager is a temporary engagement.
The JRC's acting general manager Donald Hanson has said Harrison has stepped down from the JRC board although he could not say when.
A request to the Cabinet Office for an update on the JRC board membership is yet to be answered.
The Sunday Gleaner has reported that there's disquiet among staff, several of whom are accusing the non-executive board of being “too involved” in the management of the corporation.
Meanwhile, Hanson has sought to assure staff that the recruitment for a permanent human resource manager will be transparent.
“We did a temporary employment to avert an impending shutdown of the railway because the gatekeepers are getting very agitated. There was an award and they have not been paid,” he said.
Hanson was referring to a decision by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal more than two years ago mandating the payment of millions of dollars in duty allowance to the workers.
Harrison was appointed to the JRC board in November 2020 and was named as a member up to August 30, according to the latest Cabinet Office board list released on September 20.
Telephone calls to JRC board chairman Dennis Wright have gone unanswered.
Efforts to reach Harrison, who reportedly headed the HR sub-committee, have also been futile.
The position of human resource and industrial relations manager became vacant in March but employees are also upset that it was only just advertised on September 25.
Applications close on October 4.
Up to this summer, Harrison worked in administration at the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA).
She previously worked with Sunbird Tours & Car Rental, a 37-year-old St Andrew-based company for which the JRC chairman, Dennis Wright, is the sole director and one of two shareholders, records show.
Harrison had joined the Ministry of National Security in 2016 before moving over to the FLA some time in 2019, documents revealed.
Wright chaired the FLA board for a year up to August 2017 when he and then members resigned amid the controversy over the issuance of firearm permits to people of questionable character.
The FLA falls under the Ministry of National Security, which was then led by Robert Montague.
The JRC is an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Mining, for which Montague has been portfolio minister since 2018.
Wright is a former parliamentary election candidate for the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, of which Montague is the chairman.
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