GRAVEDIGGERS employed by leading burial home, Madden’s, should have a good Christmas this year, based on a new collective agreement between their employer and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU).

“I think that with this agreement they should have one of their best Christmas ever,” said BITU spokesman George Nicholas, after an agreement which guarantees the gravediggers $1,500 more per week and a new basic wage of approximately $12,000 weekly.

In addition to the new basic, they will also receive allowances including $700 per week for transportation; $900 per week for laundry; and $170 per week for lunch subsidy.

They will also get $4,000 on each occasion of the exhumation of a body, and the parties agreed that exhumations should involve at least two gravediggers at a time.

The agreement also includes a grant of $9,000 for educational assistance for four children of diggers each year, who have passed GSAT examinations, to assist with books; plus group life insurance of $400,000 for death by natural causes and a medical scheme.

The BITU has represented approximately 20 gravediggers employed to Madden’s Funeral Supplies Limited at Dovecot Memorial Park in St Catherine, the country’s main burial park, dating back to 1983.