THE US$800-million Jamalco expansion received a boost Wednesday when the trade unions, representing workers involved in the mud lake expansion, signed a 42-month agreement expected to facilitate a strike-free completion of that project.

BITU president Ruddy Spencer and NWU island supervisor Vincent Morrison signed on behalf of the more than 100 workers on the mud lake expansion site, which has been hampered by industrial disputes for some time. Attorney-at-law Angella Robertson and Steve Miller, head of Jamaica Contract Services, signed on behalf of the contractors.

The workers will receive 15 per cent more for the first three years and 11.5 per cent for the last six months of the project, which is expected to be completed in three-and-a-half years.

The increases are broken down as follows:

. seven per cent per hour more on wages for the first three years and 3.5 per cent more in the final six months;

. five per cent more per hour for a safety bonus; and

. three per cent more per hour for attendance pay.

In addition, the parties agreed on a basic 40-hour work week with double time on Sundays and public holidays; 24-hour per day group life insurance coverage; sick leave after 120 days at a day for every 20 days after; vacation leave at the end of each year; redundancy after two years service; a shift premium and a lunch subsidy of $150 per day.

The workers were also awarded a $15,000 bonus for signing the agreement Wednesday, plus $1,200 per week for personal protection bonus.

A major new development in the agreement is that those who qualify will be paid an 18 per cent end-of-project bonus, which is three per cent above the current Joint Industrial Council rate of 15 per cent for the construction sector.

However, a number of conditions are attached to the agreement concerning the end-of-project bonus, including strict rules against not working without authorisation for more than 48 hours.

The US$800-million Jamalco expansion project was launched in May 2005, but has been moving much slower than originally anticipated. This has been attributed to Alcoa’s decision to divert a portion of the funds to other projects, in some quarters.

However, it was announced in April that the Government of Jamaica had agreed to reduce its stake in the plant from 50 per cent to 20 per cent, while Alcoa would increase its interest from 50 per cent to 80 per cent by fully funding the expansion.

The Government of Jamaica had initially agreed to fund US$120 million or 15 per cent of the expansion, with Alcoa finding the other 85 per cent for an approximately 70 per cent stake in the plant. However, it became clear when the 2006/2007 estimates of expenditure were tabled in Parliament in April that Alcoa would fully fund the expansion for an increased share.

The expansion, which stems from the Jamaican government’s decision in 2002 to remove the 30-year-old bauxite levy to encourage investments, will increase the capacity of the refinery from the current 1.25 million metric tonnes a year to 2.8 million metric tonnes.