Jamaica Railway Corporation still on strike

 

Scores of workers employed to the Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC) are still on strike.

   

They stopped working on Monday morning to protest the non-payment of allowances and fringe benefits.

   

A meeting is to be held on Tuesday with the management of the Railway Corporation and union officials.  

   

Operations at several offices of the JRC came to a standstill on Monday due to the strike.  

   

Vando Palmer, Director of Communication and Public Relations at the Ministry of Transport, says there is also a disagreement between employees and management concerning overtime-payments.

 

"The workers are sticking out for overtime payment for hours of work that they are currently doing. However, the management is of the view, and I think is being guided by some regulations out of the Ministry of Finance that if the workers are getting duty allowance then they can't get duty allowance along with overtime payment. So it's one or the other but it cannot be both," he outlined. 

 

Keith Comrie, General Secretary of the Union of Schools, Agriculture and Allied Workers, had told RJR News that the JRC's management had promised to make all outstanding payments including vacation, uniform and duty allowances by May 31.

 

Meanwhile, Mr. Palmer said temporary measures have been put in place to ensure operations at the JRC move as smoothly as possible even as workers remain off  the job.