J. Wray and Nephew accused of \'union busting\'

The union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) is accusing the management of J. Wray and Nephew of union busting after the company today sent home 46 workers.



Greta Bouges, the General Manager of Corporate Affairs at J Wray and Nephew was quick to dismiss the union\'s charge.



She said the redundancy is to further enhance and improve production efficiency while reducing costs.



She said the workers sent home were from the cooperage services and engineering department, as these services are to be outsourced.



This angered Deputy Island Supervisor of UCASE Granville Valentine.



He said the dismissed workers recently indicated an interest in joining the union.



According to Valentine the union learnt of the redundancies only on Wednesday, less than 24 hours before the workers were sent home.



The Labour Minister, Pearnel Charles said the company informed him of the decision to make the posts redundant in keeping with recent legislative changes.



The changes require a company to inform the Labour Ministry of redundancies within 21 days of making a decision.



Charles said he had also received a complaint from another union and he was moving to speedily discuss the issue.