POLICE Federation sources say that they intend to resume pay and fringe benefits increase talks with the Government this week, even as trade union leader Dwight Nelson insisted that no such agreement can be brokered between the Administration and the constabulary.

“The agreement says no benefits whatsoever. No increase in pay, no improvement in fringe benefits between 2004 and 2006,” Nelson said in reference to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) in February.

Under the MOU, the Government has agreed not to cut 15,000 public sector jobs in exchange for a wage and fringe benefits freeze for two years – April 2004 to March 2006. The wage freeze is expected to save the Government approximately $10 billion.

Nelson, the president of the JCTU, led the trade unions in negotiating the agreement.

However, Police Federation sources say that they cannot be bound by any contract to which they were not a signatory and insist that they have a mandate from their members – rank and file cops – and will be pursuing it as soon as a leadership crisis that has affected the federation is resolved.

The leadership crisis surrounds the election of three of the eight persons required to make up a full central committee. Two sergeants, two constables and one corporal have already been elected. There was a tie in the initial vote for the second corporal and another attempt to elect someone for that position failed last Tuesday because of lack of adequate facilities for the voting.

The election of two inspectors is still on hold pending a court hearing on the issue of the legality of the balloting.

Commissioner of Police, Francis Forbes, has tried to have the vote nullified on the grounds of complaints about unfair voting. But the inspectors got an injunction from the court barring him for calling new elections pending a court hearing of the issue on June 24.

Three Fridays ago, the federation’s negotiating team walked out of a meeting with the Government at which they learnt that they were not in line for any increases in pay or fringe benefits over the next two years. The police are demanding a 45 per cent pay increase.

The Government’s position was reiterated on June 11 by the minister of state in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Fitz Jackson, who handles the public sector negotiations.

Jackson told a press briefing at the ministry that in keeping with the undertaking in the MOU, the Government would not grant any increases for the period.

He said that his ministry had already conveyed to the police that the Government’s position was that “the undertaking given in the MOU would be carried through the entire public service”.

Last Thursday, Nelson reaffirmed that no group of public sector workers whose contract expire over the duration of the MOU are entitled to any form of improvements, whether they signed the MOU or not.

He said that the JCTU had no quarrel with the Police Federation, but the unions have an agreement with the Ministry of Finance and Planning which it expects will be honoured and any breach of that agreement will lead to the immediate termination of the pact.

Nelson said that all 16 member unions of the JCTU signed the agreement and are committed to sticking with it, as long as the Government honoured its commitment not to offer any other group anything more than is agreed in the MOU.

He noted that the Police Federation was not recognised as a trade union under the law and said that it was in fact “illegal for them to be negotiating on behalf of the police”.

“It is the commissioner of police who is entitled to represent the police in negotiations with the Government, so when the Government sits down with the Police Federation to negotiate, they are actually acting ultra vires,” Nelson said.

Nelson’s argument was supported by Errol Miller, the director of industrial relations at the finance ministry.

Miller referred to the Constabulary Force Act which, he said, stated that matters affecting the general welfare and emoluments of the police should only be represented to the Government by the leadership of the force and the minister of national security.

“They should not really be involved in trade union activities,” Miller said. “Constables, for example, are prohibited from joining a trade union or any such association that deals with pay and other similar issues.”

However, Miller admitted that for a number of years now the Government had accommodated the federation in discussions on improved pay and fringe benefits.

But one Police Federation official disagreed, saying: “Let us see if that is the case. We would love to hear the Government say that they are not going to speak with us.”

He reiterated that the federation could not be bound by any contract that it didn’t sign and that the executive was given a mandate. “We are waiting until the executive is fully restored,” he said.