DESPITE government’s optimism about settling the pay dispute with the police, the talks yesterday broke down at the finance ministry in Kingston.

“We walked out of the meeting, we walked out,” the Police Federation’s public relations officer Sergeant David White said. The Police Federation’s negotiating team, he said, was dissatisfied with the offer made by the government.

However, minister of state in the Ministry of Finance and Planning Fitz Jackson told the Observer that two outstanding positions were accepted by both parties previous to yesterday’s meeting, but pointed out that there was still one which the parties cannot agree on.

“There were three positions put forward at the last meeting and they (police) got two out of three but refused to meet (the government) on one point. It was agreed that they would reconsider that point. I advised that they should have all understanding (of their positions) before they summon the next meeting. But when they came today (yesterday) the meeting fell through,” Jackson said.

Jackson declined to say what were the three outstanding issues, but said that the federation had changed its position and the parties were unable to reach an agreement. “I will not discuss the contents of these positions publicly while the negotiations are still continuing,” Jackson said.

But White said the three positions related to housing, service pay and the $40,000 one-off payment. He said no agreement was reached but the parties came to “some understanding as to how we should go forward.” He said yesterday’s meeting provided “no fulfillment” as Minister Jackson came to the meeting and showed that none of the three issues were researched by government.

“We could not get anywhere so we simply walked out of the meeting. We have had 30 meetings with government over the past two years and we observe that at each meeting what was agreed on in principle at previous meetings, Minister Jackson pretend to be confused as to what we are talking about. The federation feels that that is a blatant disrespect,” said White.

Jackson was, however, disappointed that a settlement was not reached yesterday.

“.I went there with all expectations to settle the matter, based on our position at the last meeting,” Jackson said.

The federation’s public relations officer said the police would be calling an all island special general meeting of it members next week to decide on what further action to take.

Jackson said, however, that he was willing to meet with the federation as soon as possible as he wanted to avoid a prolonged delay in the negotiations.

The police have been negotiating for new wages and fringe benefits since last year May.

-whytetk@jamaicaobserevr.com