Opposition Spokesperson on Transport and Works, Mikael Phillips, MP, is calling on the government to immediately intervene in the dispute at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company Ltd (JUTC) to end the bus strike which is crippling the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR) and denying transit-dependent people access to the service to go to school and work.

In a statement this morning, Phillips said to his knowledge, the strike is not the result of dissatisfaction with the levels of salary adjustments under the compensation review programme, but the failure by management to explain its implementation and the impact of the take-home pay of the drivers. He shared that the management had not written to staff members explaining the new salary levels and the recovery of advances paid in retroactive amounts last December.

He said one of the vexing issues is the recovery of the entire advance from the fortnightly paid drivers yesterday, instead of agreeing with their union on a recovery plan without the arrogance of ‘take it or leave it’. He said the strike was avoidable and that the suffering of commuters is unnecessary. 

Phillips sympathised with the cause of the workers but said a better way must be found urgently to end the inconvenience of the travelling public, including the use of unlicensed and uninsured robot taxis, which poses a risk.

He further calls on the Minister of Transport and Mining, Audley Shaw, MP, and the JUTC management to get involved immediately, as no meeting has been scheduled to resolve the issues and restore normality to the company’s operations and commuter services.

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