Tufton pushes back on claims overtime cuts affecting mosquito fogging

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton is defending limits on overtime hours for vector control workers, even as local officials and frontline staff warn that the restrictions are contributing to gaps in service delivery in relation to mosquito fogging in parts of St Catherine.

Concerns about the impact of the policy were raised at last Thursday’s meeting of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation by councillor for the Waterford Division, Fenley Douglas. He warned that adjustments to fogging schedules across the parish could heighten the risk of mosquito-borne diseases during the rainy season.

Douglas said several communities had been excluded from scheduled fogging days, allegedly because of a lack of funding to cover overtime payments.

“In a time like this, when we have frequent rainfall and mosquito breeding increases, and mosquito-borne diseases are prevalent, it is totally unacceptable for these communities to be left out because no money is provided to pay for overtime work,” he said. “It cannot be that we are dealing with mosquito fogging in the parish on a piecemeal basis; this foolishness must stop because we are in a new financial year and money should have been set aside to carry out mosquito-fogging exercise.”

Those concerns were echoed by a vector-control worker employed by the South East Regional Health Authority, who spoke on condition of anonymity and said operational limits are directly affecting coverage.

“The reason why these communities are left out is because our overtime has been cut to 15 hours per week, and we can’t get to all the communities in that time,” the worker said.

Tufton, however, maintained that the rules governing overtime are not parish-specific, but form part of a nationwide framework aimed at managing labour costs while improving planning and predictability.

“The stipulation around hours for vector-control workers and mosquito treatment in communities is not unique to St Catherine; it is a countrywide policy being implemented by the regional health authorities to manage overtime work and create greater predictability and planning versus objectives,” he said.

NO NEGLECT

The minister also rejected the suggestion that the framework results in communities being neglected.

“It is not my understanding that any community in St Catherine is underserved, because the workers do operate within the extra-hours work policy,” Tufton told The Gleaner this week.

He added that the policy allows for flexibility where public-health risks justify it, pointing particularly to mosquito-borne illnesses such as dengue.

“The feeling is that if there is a need based on a credible threat — of course dengue being the primary threat at this time for vector workers — regional authorities, working with parish managers, can adjust overtime hours and normally do,” Tufton said, adding that such adjustments were made following the passage of Hurricane Melissa in affected communities.

Under normal circumstances, however, regional authorities tend to adhere closely to the stipulated overtime limits, sometimes not [to] the liking of the vector worker, Tufton said.

According to the minister, activity is intensified when surveillance data indicate heightened risk.

“If the índices at any time indicate that the programme should be ramped up, the extra work hour is increase in like manner,” he said, citing the period between November 2025 and January 2026 as an example of expanded operations.

SERHA schedules for December 2025 and January 2026 show that fogging was planned across much of St Catherine on a near-daily basis, though coverage rotated between communities and included several no-fogging days, particularly during the Christmas and New Year holiday period.

Tufton also pointed to longer-term measures, noting that more than 60 permanent vector-control workers have been employed, with an emphasis on preventative action rather than emergency response.

ruddy.mathison@gleanerjm.com