CAL workers outraged by no-contract status
Published:Tuesday | May 3, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Some 54 Air Jamaica employees were not retained by Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) when their contracts ended last Friday.
Among the casualties is Sue Rosen, a vice-president who has had more than 40 years of experience in the airline industry.
CAL's director of communications, Laura Asbjornsen, could not confirm Rosen's departure. However, she said Gleaner reports that 300 persons would be sent home come April 30 were incorrect.
"Only 54 people were sent home," said the airline official.
Highly placed sources at the airline told The Gleaner the majority of customer-service staff have had their positions downgraded to part-time.
Others who are left with the former national carrier have been given two-month contracts, which expire in June.
Those with Caribbean Airlines contracts have again been given six months' probation. This is the third time that the Trinidadians have given employees short-term contracts.
When CAL took over the airline from Air Jamaica last year, the staff was employed to a company called Customer Service Call Centre. When those contracts expired at the end of October 2010, the workers were then employed to CARIBAL. The workers are now employed to Caribbean Airlines.
"We are being kept in bondage. We don't know where we stand. Every six months we are given another contract for another company. No bank will give us a loan because we don't have a stable job," said a frustrated staff staffer.
"They (CAL officials) tell us in meetings that there is no Air Jamaica; the name is only a marketing tool," the individual added.