Davies says new MOU will not include wage freeze

FINANCE Minister Omar Davies said yesterday that there will be a new public sector Memorandum of Understanding signed by the beginning of the 2006/2007 fiscal year, but said there will not be a ‘wage freeze’ component included in the agreement.

“The MOU is going to be continued on April 1 next year,” Davies told yesterday’s Life of Jamaica quarterly awards luncheon for its top performers, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

The signatories of this agreement, said the finance minister, would include a broader range of players within the economy.

Davies acknowledged, however, that after absorbing rising costs without any commensurate increase in pay for close to two years, public sector workers would not have to bear another wage freeze.

Special return to court today

SPECIAL constables return to court this morning to test the government’s insistence that they cannot be granted pay increases under the current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) covering public sector workers.

The Island Special Constabulary Force Association (ISCFA) said that it was never a signatory to the MOU, nor was represented at the negotiations which led to the agreement, so it is absurd to suggest that it is bound by the provisions.

T&T reconsiders, grants permits to J’cans

THE simmering dispute between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago over the refusal of work permits to six Jamaicans recruited by the West Indian Tobacco Company in Port-of-Spain, died yesterday with the intervention of the Trinidad government.

The work permit advisory committee in Trinidad has decided to change its position and grant the six certificates of recognition of Caribbean community skills. These certificates are granted under the free movement of skilled persons provisions of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Michael Bernard, managing director of the Carreras Group, to which the West Indian Tobacco Company in Trinidad is affiliated confirmed yesterday that the company has been informed that the certificates will be granted.

“My understanding is that they will be issued and once that is done, I guess, the issue is settled,” Bernard said.

Stop order on apartment complex

MAYOR of Kingston Desmond McKenzie yesterday issued a stop notice, demanding that construction on a housing development at 12 Seaview Avenue, Kingston 10 be halted by today.

The mayor said he issued the stop notice after the developer, Millard Development Company Limited, failed to observe a cease work notice which was issued by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) on Wednesday.