ABOUT 30 workers of Jamaica Urban Transit Company’s (JUTC) road management unit, yesterday walked off their jobs to protest against what they claimed was the company’s poor labour relations practices and anti-union stance.

They protested outside the company’s headquarters at Twickenham Park in Spanish Town.

The workers, represented by the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE), claimed that the beleaguered bus company, currently being restructured, attempted to make several of their colleagues redundant without negotiation or consultation with their union. They also claimed that the management of the JUTC was planning to offer their positions to ‘hand-picked’ cronies outside the company.

“What we are concerned about is the level of surreptitious practice taking place. They have already determined the people outside that they want for the job. They have already advertised some new positions, and on Sunday those positions will be open to the public, too, so what seems to be happening is that the JUTC is trying to replace some of our workers with their friends and families,” charged UCASE vice president, Danny Roberts.

Roberts, who was at the scene of the demonstration, also issued a rash of other complaints about the JUTC management. He accused the company of refusing to have dialogue and negotiations with the union about proposed job cuts and about the creation of new positions, and claimed that he had “clear and incontrovertible evidence of union busting practices”.

Roberts said the union and its representative had no faith in the management of the JUTC, and called for the resignations of company president Sterling Soares and vice-president for employee relations, Keith Goodison.

Inside the bus company’s headquarters at Twickenham Park in St Catherine, however, there was confusion among the top management as to why the demonstration was taking place.

“Where is this animosity that exists between workers and management? I’m not really sure what Mr Roberts is talking about, because we met as recently as yesterday with delegates of UCASE, we have met three times since the start of this week with delegates, and we have issued invitations on many, many occasions to Mr Roberts to attend meetings, but Mr Roberts does not attend meetings,” said vice-president of employee and public relations Keith Goodison, who displayed a thick folder of union-management correspondence to emphasise his point.

He added: “We are not aware of what precisely would constitute the need for a demonstration because the restructuring exercise they speak of started in January, and Mr Roberts and his delegates have been briefed on the procedure being used, and we have had meetings with the union delegates, both with and without Mr Roberts.”

He also told the Observer that at one of this week’s meetings, two employees who had previously been laid off were reinstated, following negotiations between the union delegates and the JUTC management.

Goodison also dismissed Roberts’ claim of union busting as “rubbish”. The JUTC, he said, had advertised the new positions internally first, beginning last Monday — five days before they were advertised publicly. Since then, he added, the company has received four applications from the same unionised workers who participated in the protest.

“We have given every opportunity to our workers to apply for these positions, handing out job descriptions, explaining what these roles involve, and advertising internally before we welcome outside applicants. All the workers — both those that have been made redundant and those that still work here — were given the chance to apply for jobs at different levels, if they so desire, and that’s the whole idea behind restructuring,” said Goodison, a former senior advisor to the minister of labour.

Since November 2002, the JUTC has been reorganising its structure following a study completed last summer by auditing firm KPMG. That study revealed that between its formation in July 1998 and February 2002, the JUTC lost $2.63 billion, that it had a negative net worth of $1.3 billion, and as such, the company was “technically insolvent”.

The JUTC estimates that it loses approximately $4 million monthly from both illegal operators who ply the bus routes and operating inefficiencies.

In January, a team of Swedish consultants also revealed the findings of an audit they had conducted into the operations of the JUTC late last year. They 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. The Swedes also submitted a revised operational structure that would help the JUTC’s situation. Two months ago, following those recommendations, the JUTC, in consultation with UCASE and the UAWU, the other union representing JUTC workers, laid off close to 300 people in the “first phase” of ongoing and across-the-board downsizing efforts intended to make the money-losing company profitable. At that time, 54 employees in the road management unit lost their jobs, followed by another eight who last week were made redundant.

According to Goodison, there will be more redundancies throughout the company, since the layoffs have been done thus far, on a phased basis.

The restructuring at the JUTC, he said, is expected to end by April 30.