Parties enter third day of conciliatory talks

The two-day strike threat issued by disgruntled employees of the island’s water utility has expired, averting a shutdown of distribution systems and avoiding discomfort to an already parched population faced with unusually hot temperatures and very little rainfall.

Acting corporate public relations manager at the National Water Commission (NWC), Delano Williams, said no deal as yet been reached as the state-owned utility continue conciliatory meetings with workers’ unions at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. 

Williams, in an interview with Our Today, shared that the NWC, Ministry of Labour and Social Security, and trade unions representing the workers “met yesterday with no resolution. However, they will meet tomorrow (July 12) at 2 p.m. to continue discussions.

“We are hoping for an amicable outcome with the follow-up discussion for tomorrow afternoon,” he said. 

Similarly, the head of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions and the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers, Helene Davis-Whyte is optimistic for an amicable resolution to the impasse over a reclassification and compensation review. 

She said that the meeting “broke yesterday with the intention of them meeting again on Wednesday within which time the NWC workers are hoped to resume normal operations”.

NWC workers, on Sunday (July 9), issued a 72-hour strike notice highlighting frustrations with outstanding matters related to the compensation peview Process. 

The notice was given because a job evaluation exercise, expected to be done in November 2022, has still not been executed. 

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