Ambulance drivers in Kingston and St. Andrew return to work

 

Ambulance drivers attached to the Kingston and St. Andrew Health Department have returned to work. 

 

The drivers, who took industrial action on Monday, returned to work Wednesday morning following a conciliation meeting involving their union, the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO) and the health department at the Ministry of Labour.

 

Representatives of the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) were also in attendance.

 

"The meeting decided that we would go back to the local level to try and resolve the issues because it was felt that, you know, a lot of the issues could have been resolved had the south east region really responded to the union's letter in March of this year. What we will do thereafter is to meet back at the Ministry of Labour on the 10th of September to be able to determine whether or not both sides will feel that the dispute has been satisfactorily resolved. So as a result, the workers have resumed normalcy and I expect that that will be the situation going forward," said JALGO General Secretary Helene Davis Whyte in an update.

 

The drivers were upset over the non-payment of outstanding overtime and retroactive payments.