Cheryll Patterson, 29, a single mother with four kids, hoped for the best when she arrived for work yesterday at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company’s (JUTC’s) Spanish Town depot.

She instead got the letter she dreaded.

Signed by JUTC president Sterling B Soares, the one-page letter reiterated the state-owned transit company’s financial troubles, and its need to eliminate 280 positions based on recommendations made last summer by a Swiss consultant.

And then, halfway down, came the dreaded sentence: “It is with regret that I must inform you that you are among those person to be made redundant effective from January 30, 2003.”

Some laid-off employees accepted the bad news in silence, having known for months about the impending layoffs. But Patterson, a conductress who had worked for the company for nearly three years, was among those who fumed that “politics” played a role in her dismissal.

“They tell me that I was feisty. What I did? I don’t know,” said Patterson. She earned about $12,000 per fortnight and now worries about how she’ll make ends meet after her eight weeks of severance pay runs out.

Laid-off employees will get two weeks of pay for every year of service on top of two weeks of pay in lieu of notice.

Aston Laing, 57, reacted with stony silence when learning his name was on “the list”.

“I’m the only breadwinner,” said Laing, who said he supports his infirm wife and two children. He had been a maintenance worker and groundskeeper at the Spanish Town depot, earning $7,000 per fortnight.

“I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“There was no absenteeism, no tardiness, no rudeness to anybody,” said Jennifer Elliott, 42, referring to her 19 months on the job. The conductress, who supports five kids, complained she was “put on the list at the last minute”.

Union officials were sympathetic, but insisted the dismissals were fair. Deciding who got laid off, they explained, was based on “the criteria”: it included age, job performance, and length of time at the JUTC.

In addition, oversight provided by union officials and lengthy discussions with employees and management ensured that “no victimisation or politics come into play”, said Delrose Holgate, a liaison officer for the University & Allied Workers Union (UAWU), who briefly visited the Spanish Town depot.

Throughout the day, police were present at the depots, including some who wore helmets and carried automatic rifles.

“We don’t really expect any trouble, but the police have to be here,” said one officer at the Ashenheim depot, who declined to give his name.

The UAWU represents bus drivers and conductresses, among others. The Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) represented 54 workers who where laid off.

Yesterday’s layoffs were described as the “first phase” of ongoing and across-the-board downsizing efforts intended to make the money-losing JUTC profitable.

According to the Swiss consulting firm, KPMG, the JUTC lost $2.63 billion between its formation in July, 1998, and February of last year, giving it a negative net worth of $1.3 billion.

The company was “technically insolvent”, a situation that yesterday’s layoffs were intended to help reverse.