NWC workers to resume tonight
KINGSTON, Jamaica — National Water Commission (NWC) employees are expected to resume work this evening starting with the night shift.
OBSERVER ONLINE understands that a decision to resume, following the reaching of what union officers describe as an “understanding”, will facilitate a resumption of normality at the government-owned water distribution company pending the results from current conciliatory efforts being made by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS).
A trade union source confirmed shortly after 4:00 pm this afternoon, that the parties were proceeding to a formal meeting, at which the agreement is expected to be signed. The NWC unionized workers have been on strike since Tuesday morning in protest against the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service’s delay in dealing with a 14-year-old reclassification dispute.
Four trade unions – the Bustamante Industrial Trades Union (BITU), the National Workers Union (NWU), the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO) and the Jamaica Union of Public Officers and Public Employees (JUPOPE) as well as a managers’ union are in negotiations.
Balford Henry