A $25,000 bonus paid to some Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) employees for not joining a strike has angered their colleagues and trade unions and has added more fuel to a burning dispute that could result in a strike and loss of electricity over the Christmas holidays.

The dispute involves the three unions representing the workers – the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), National Workers Union (NWU) and its white collar affiliate the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) and involves a number of issues.

However, the main bone of contention is the $25,000 bonus paid to some workers at the Bogue plant in St James in November for not participating in a strike which affected both the Hunt’s Bay and Old Harbour plants.

Sources told the Observer that the initial dispute involved an oil leak at Hunt’s Bay for which a supervisor, who is also a UCASE delegate, was reprimanded. The workers disputed the company’s handling of the issue and went on strike on October 30. They were joined, later on, by workers at Old Harbour. However, they resumed work pending a conciliatory meeting at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security the following day.

That matter, the Observer was told, has not yet been settled.

UCASE general-secretary, Senator Navel Clarke, said that his members at Bogue were not asked to join the strike and did not go out. However, the management of the plant eventually sent out an email congratulating the workers for not joining the strike and offering them $25,000 each for staying on the job.

When the Observer contacted JPS industrial relations manager Winsett Thomas Saturday, he said that he was aware of the issues, but did not wish to comment in the absence of the corporate communications manager. But the Observer has been unable to reach corporate communications manager Winsome Callum for comment.

Clarke said that the union considered the reward a breach of the provisions of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA), which does not allow employers to pay bonuses to workers to induce them to ignore trade union activities.

Wesley Nelson, BITU vice-president, said that his union fully supported the stand taken by UCASE, which already has the support of the NWU.

Nelson claimed that since the recent change in the presidency of the JPS from Charles Matthews to Damian Obligio, there have been a number of changes at the company which, he alleged, were in breach of a memorandum of understanding reached between the parties when Mirant took over the light and power company in 2001.

The Observer was told at the weekend that the workers involved in the dispute were persuaded by a union official not to shut down the public electricity supply from

both plants.

The three unions have planned a joint news conference for tomorrow at 10:00 am at the NWU head office on East Street

in Kingston.