PRESIDENT of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) Ruddy Spencer says his union is unaware that a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for public sector workers is to be signed soon.

Spencer told the Observer that union officers at their weekly meeting, yesterday, raised concerns about media reports of a new public sector MOU to be signed soon, although the union, which represents thousands of public sector workers, has not been briefed on either the details or developments in the negotiations.

“The union is concerned about statements in the media, made by the minister of state in the Ministry of Finance (Fitz Jackson) that a new MOU agreement is to be signed soon, while nobody has briefed us on the talks. We are concerned that an agreement can be reached without our input,” said Spencer, who is also the Opposition’s spokesman on labour.

The BITU president said that the union will not make known its position on the proposed new MOU until after a meeting of the board of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), which is scheduled for tomorrow.

BITU senior vice-president Senator Dwight Nelson headed the team which negotiated the first public sector MOU two years ago. However Nelson is no longer on the team, which now comprises Wayne Jones, president of the Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA); Helen Davis-Whyte, president of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO); Ruel Reid, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association; and Lambert Brown, president of the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU).

The BITU threatened, on more than one occasion last year, to pull out of the previous MOU after inflation soared well into double figures, despite a provision that the government would keep it within single digits, while the MOU held to a wage freeze in the public sector. The threat, eventually, triggered a decision by the Government to grant the public servants a one-off “hardship” allowance of between $400 and $600 per week, which ended on March 31 with the expiry of the MOU.

The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) has already rejected the government’s recent basic pay offer. The association described the offer as an “insult to the hardworking and dedicated teachers of Jamaica,” although Reid is one of the members of the JCTU team. This has indicated a level of disgruntlement among rank and file public sector workers over what is being offered to them for pay increases.

Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie recently proposed that the trade unions resist any provision to continue the freeze on employment, which has been in effect since 2004. But, this is likely to continue with some exceptions.