Drivers gathered at a bus park in Kingston. Several are among the 280 Jamaica Urban Transit Company workers to be sent home today. (Observer file photo)

TWO hundred and eighty jobs at the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) are being made redundant today in what the firm said was the first phase of an across-the-board downsizing to make it viable and improve efficiency and productivity.

In a statement yesterday, the JUTC said that the 280 workers represent "approximately eight per cent of the company's workforce of 3,300". But yesterday, JUTC workers remained in the dark as to who among them would lose their jobs.

The reasons for the job cuts, the company said, were discussed at length with the employees and their unions -- the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE), and the University & Allied Workers Union (UAWU) -- since November last year.

The redundancies come after a study, completed last summer by the consulting firm KPMG, found that between its formation in July 1998 and February last year, the JUTC lost $2.63 billion and that it had a negative net worth of $1.3 billion.

The company was "technically insolvent", the report found.

In fact, the bus company estimates that it loses approximately $4 million monthly from both illegal operators who ply the bus routes and operating inefficiencies.

Earlier this month it emerged that a team of Swiss consultants who recently conducted an audit into the operations of the JUTC has recommended a 90 per cent increase in bus fares as one of the measures to help move the ailing company into a position of profitability.

According to the consultants, $200 million can be raised in the first six months from its recommended fare increase.

However, the fare increase recommendation has already been rejected by the unions.

"We cannot, every time an institution runs into difficulty, run to the public asking for more money without knowing if the money will be managed properly," the UAWU's Clifton Grant said earlier this month. "We have to see that we are providing a service that they are willing to pay for and feel comfortable with."

Yesterday, the company said that more job cuts are expected to be carried out through March 31.

In addition to bus drivers, conductors and administrative workers, the redundancies have included a vice-president and 39 managers in recent months, leaving 81 managers.

Yesterday, union leaders and management held 11th-hour talks over who will leave and over what kinds of benefits the company will provide them.

Danny Roberts, vice-president of UCASE, said late yesterday that over the past four weeks, discussions on who stays or departs have focused on issues of job performance, length of service, and age.

"Since 8:30 am, we have been in discussions to finalise the list," said Roberts. His union represents 54 workers.

The UAWU represents bus drivers and conductors.

Roberts said one of the issues the UCASE was finalising yesterday was what severance benefits the workers being sent home would receive.

"We are making a special appeal to the Ministry of Transport, and if necessary to the prime minister, to provide a special redundancy package for the workers at JUTC," Roberts said.

Roberts said the union is seeking up to six weeks' severance pay, or six weeks' notice, for departing employees.

Jamaica's unemployment rate is running about 16 per cent.

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