NEARLY 1,000 workers, as well as former employees of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), are expected to gain from a huge retroactive pay windfall, after the Court of Appeal yesterday upheld a ruling by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) in favour of a new salary structure, retroactive to January 2001.

The increases could cost the JPS as much as $500 million, but the company said last night that the cost depended on the interpretation of the IDT’s award.

The windfall is expected from the implementation of recommendations made since 2002 in a job evaluation and compensation review, conducted by Trevor Hamilton and Associates and Peat Marwick and Partners, respectively.

Following the sale of the JPS to Mirant in March 2001, and despite a Memorandum of Understanding to continue bargaining in good faith, the new board rejected those recommendations and tried to implement its own pay structure based on performance.

The unions – the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) and the National Workers Union (NWU) – resisted the move and threatened to strike in December 2002. The matter was then referred to the IDT in February 2003. But although the parties agreed to abide by the tribunal’s ruling, the company appealed the decision via a judicial review in 2005 and then through the Court of Appeal.

Yesterday, spokesmen for the trade unions, Vincent Morrison, president of the NWU and Wesley Nelson, vice-president of the BITU, welcomed the court’s decision. Nelson said that the unions were not worried about an appeal against the judgment.

However, there seems to be no need to worry about an appeal, as last night the JPS issued a release suggesting that it might be willing to follow the advice of the appeal court judges – Justices Panton, Cooke and McCalla – and accept a proposal from the IDT to resolve the matter.

Although the JPS can still appeal the matter at the level of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom, in its statement last night, it said that it had written the Ministry of Labour, from late last year, “requesting its guidance” on how to proceed with the matter following the Tribunal’s suggestions on resolving the dispute.

The JPS also expressed a willingness to have discussions with the unions to arrive at a “mutually acceptable” solution.

Summing up the case, Mr Justice Cooke commended the IDT for the manner in which it had handled the matter and also praised the tribunal for the “thorough manner” in which it carried out its task. He also suggested that the parties consider the IDT’s suggestions towards resolving the dispute.

The IDT panel which heard the matter comprised Donovan Hunter, chairman, Trevor McNish and Everrette Palmer, members.

The agreement for a new pay structure had preceded the government’s sale of 80 per cent of its shares in the company to US light and power firm, Mirant, in April 2001. However, the new JPS management refused to implement the review recommendations, triggering a dispute with the trade unions.