Power cuts

A shortfall in generating capacity has, since Sunday, forced the Jamaica Public Service Company to temporarily cut service to thousands of its customers.

The outages were due to routine “load shedding”, said JPSCo spokesperson, Winsome Callum.

Callum said load shedding scheduled for last night and lasting about three hours was expected in “sections of Clarendon, Trelawny, St Ann, and Kingston”.

“I don’t expect the outages to go beyond 9:30 or 10 pm,” she said.

According to a JPSCo statement, an outage in St Thomas yesterday was caused by a motor vehicle accident in Knightsville that knocked over a utility poll. The JPSCo did not say how many customers were affected or for how long they were without power.

College loses accreditation for two courses

THE University Council of Jamaica yesterday withdrew accreditation of two courses offered by the Mandeville-based Liberal Arts College of Jamaica, effective December 31, 2003.

The affected courses are:

* The BSc in Business Administration, with specialisation in organisational management; and

* The BSc in Education, with specialisations in English, History, Religious Studies, Management Science and Sociology.

“This action is being taken because the LACJ has failed to comply with certain conditions under which the programmes were accredited,” the University Council said in a statement yesterday.

Education officers on strike

THE island’s more than 260 education officers stayed of their jobs yesterday to protest against the government’s delay in concluding negotiations for a new wage contract.

Dr Fitz Russell, vice-chairman of the Jamaica Association of Education Officers (JAEO) told reporters yesterday that his 263 members would be off the job today, adding that the government had failed to respond to an ultimatum that expired last Thursday.

“By utmost unanimous decision we are off the job and we’ll be off for two days… ,” Dr Russell told journalists at a press conference at the Medallion Hall Hotel in Kingston.

According to Dr Russell, the finance ministry reneged on an agreement reached during an August 19 meeting between both parties.

… Water workers too

UNIONISED workers at the National Water Commission yesterday vowed to continue their strike, started yesterday, if the company failed to reverse the appointment of two vice-presidents and eight regional managers.

“We want corrective action and a reversal, and (we) have written to the president (EG Hunter) and the NWC chairman, Richard Byles,” said Granville Valentine, senior negotiating officer at the National Workers Union.

Valentine added that it was agreed between his union and the NWC management, as part of the recommendations of the recent audit, that the president would only hire the vice-presidents, who would then choose their own management team.

“We want a freeze and a reversal what is done and for the president to wheel and come again,” added president of the NWC’s Executive Staff Association (union), Garnett Richards.