Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter

( L - R ) Charles, Dobson

Some level of normality was restored at the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) last night following a meeting chaired by Labour Minister Pearnel Charles between representatives of the power company's management and unionised workers.

But up to 9 o'clock last night, some customers in several parishes across the island were still without electricity.

Employees were expected to return to work for the 8 p.m. shift yesterday, following a seven-hour meeting at Jamaica House.

The meeting came as a result of industrial action by some employees of the utility company, following the dismissal of consultants working on the Job Evaluation and Compensation Review Project.

Charles told The Gleaner last night that the ministry was able to broker an agreement with the JPS and the four unions represented. He said, however, that the meetings would continue into the night as representatives of the JPS management would be speaking with the consultants to further examine the variance between the figures presented in the evaluations.

"There will also be a meeting between the workers, the ministry and the oversight committee later this evening (yesterday) and we have planned an agenda of meetings to pursue this matter vigorously so that we can have a settlement of this eight-year-old issue," said Charles.

Ultimatum on consultants

Clive Dobson, spokesman for the National Workers Union, told The Gleaner last night that the consultants had been reinstated. "Without that, we could not go any further," he said.

Dobson further said that the workers yesterday signed an agreement that they would be back at work last night. But, he said, there was no guarantee that power would be restored to all affected areas before today.

Up to late last night, several thousand customers in parts of Manchester, St Elizabeth, Kingston, St Thomas, St Catherine and St Ann were still without electricity.

Winsome Callum, head of corporate communications at JPS, said she could not give a timeline as to when full power would be restored, but said the process would begin as soon as the employees returned to their workstations.

Following a ruling by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal in 2003 that the JPS should pay employees increased emoluments, consultants Trevor Hamilton and Associates and FocalPoint Consulting were hired by the JPS to determine amounts due to individual JPS employees for the period 2001-2007 under the reclassification exercise.

These increases arose from a job evaluation and compensation review exercise, which aimed to bring the pay scale of JPS employees in line with their counterparts in the market.

In a press statement last Saturday, the JPS said it took the decision to dismiss the consultants because the company had lost confidence in their work. The JPS said yesterday that despite the impasse, it would ensure that the employees were paid by the end of May.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com