BOUYGUES Construction Company, contractors for Highway 2000, says it is willing to negotiate with disgruntled workers who walked off their jobs Thursday to protest for better wages.

“I know the situation and we agree to look into what they say. I am always open for discussion, but not with blackmail and they know that about me so they returned to work,” Bouygues’ project and branch manager Jean-Noel Foulard told the Observer Thursday, shortly after the workers ended their protest.

“We get $7,000 a fortnight. The white man gas money is more than that,” one worker said.

“We a pay too much tax. The government must give us a break cause everything going up,” another said at the protest in front of Bouygues’ storage facility on the Dyke Road in St Catherine.

The protest was halted after the workers were called to a meeting with representatives from the National Workers Union, the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and Bouygues, after which they returned to work.