Protesting HEART Trust/NTA workers are to return to their posts tomorrow.

A back-to-work summons went into effect Friday after union representatives failed to show up to a meeting called by the Ministry of Labour on Thursday to resolve the issue, causing the matter to be referred to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT).

The over 1,000 workers at 26 institutions islandwide stopped working on Wednesday after the Trust indicated that it was unable to honour their request for a 20 per cent increase in year one and 10 per cent in year two. The institution’s management has said it is unable to offer more than 13 per cent in year one and seven per cent in year two.

At a meeting Friday, it was decided that the dispute could be resolved at the ministry level, resulting in it being referred to the ministry by the IDT.

According to Patrick Smith, senior secretary for member services at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), which represents some of the HEART Trust/NTA instructors, the negotiators are expected to advise the IDT within 14 days of any settlement made.

“We have 14 days within which to reach a settlement or we will have to go back to the IDT by the 16th of March. If we settle before then we simply advise the IDT that we have,” Smith told the Sunday Observer, adding that “normalcy should be brought to bear by Monday”.

In the meantime, both the unions and the management of the HEART Trust are to agree on a date to continue the negotiations with the labour ministry.

“Our position is that we are prepared to talk, so we will go there and listen to what they have to say, and depending on what transpires, that will determine our position. We are in a joint bargaining mode so it’s not just a JTA matter,” Smith told the Sunday Observer, noting that “any compromise will have to be based on the four unions’ agreed position”.

Meanwhile, communications director for the Trust, Mark Thomas, said the entity welcomed the position taken by the unions.

“It was unfortunate that this industrial action had to happen…but we welcome the unions’ position on this matter and we look forward to resuming the negotiations,” Thomas told the Sunday Observer.

As to whether a new offer would be put on the table Thomas was uncertain.

“We can’t (revise our stance), we enter into the negotiations in good faith, but at this point our position from the very beginning was an honourable position. It was based on our ability to pay as an organisation. We can open our books and our finances to prove, as we did repeatedly with the unions, to point out that this is our ability to pay and we are doing the best we can,” he said.

Added Thomas: “We don’t see the position moving. We are under the strictures of the MOU2 arrangement not to offer outside of the 20 per cent cap that has been put. Our position is 13 per cent in year one and seven in year two and …this is an eminently fair position being taken by the NTA with respect to its workers. We have always been fair. and transparent to a fault.”