KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Union of Clerical Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) says that over 70 lands and agriculture dairy workers employed to UC Rusal Alumina Jamaica Limited have again taken industrial action.

According to UCASE, this follows the breakdown of wage and fringe benefits negotiations between the company and UCASE at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security yesterday.

This is the second time this month that employees are protesting over the wage and fringe benefits negotiations.

Read: More than 120 UC Rusal employees protest over wages

The union noted that its president has asked for the labour minister’s intervention on the matter.

The company and the union have been negotiating a new Collective Labour Agreement since August 2018 after UCASE obtained bargaining rights for the employees in a poll conducted by the Ministry of Labour in May of that same year, the union said.

It noted that the company finally made the proposal of four per cent in year 1 and year 2 along with a monthly $4,000 laundry allowance and the offer was accepted by the union.

However, UCASE said the company is demanding that the union agree to extend the contract for an additional two years at zero per cent in the third and fourth years. It said it finds the company’s unilateral position most unreasonable, especially with regard to the fact that the employees have not had a wage increase since the Russian company, UC Rusal, took over the ownership and management in June 2010.

“The basic wage currently paid to the employees is $1,650 per day. Conditions under which the employees work at the company’s facilities in Manchester and St Ann is akin to slavery. No protective gears, no sick leave benefits, no overtime payments when worked, no pension benefits and not to mention the often abusive and ill-mannered treatment meted out to the workers from time to time,” the union outlined in a release today.

It said the workers are adamant that the company can do much better and that they will not accept a four-year contract in which the last two years will be meaningless to them.