The island’s two major trade unions are threatening to instruct workers at the Fiesta Hotel project in Hanover to close down the site unless a meeting is held by Wednesday to discuss their working conditions.

The threat followed a meeting between a large number of the over 2,000 employees at the Spanish hotel project, and the presidents of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) and the National Workers Union (NWU) – Ruddy Spencer and Vincent Morrison respectively – at the site during the workers’ lunch hour last Wednesday.

According to Spencer, workers attending the meeting related some of the “most deplorable working conditions” experienced by any group of construction workers in Jamaica.

He said that the workers complained of being paid only once a month, instead of weekly or bi-weekly; being paid on different dates of the month; no pay advice with their wages to prove payment of statutory deductions and income tax; no overtime pay for weekends; many of them not having safety gears; no one-in-20 leave arrangement; no end-of-project bonus payment; no proper lunch room facilities.

These are all conditions of employment on construction sites sanctioned by the Joint Industrial Council for the building and construction industry, which includes representatives of the Government, the builders and the trade unions.

“What we were told by the workers is nothing less than frightening,” said Spencer. “It is just disgraceful how these workers have been treated.”

He said that the unions were told that employees who raise concerns about their working conditions are either dismissed or suspended by the contractors.

In light of the complaints made by the workers, Spencer said that the unions have asked the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to facilitate a meeting with the developers and the contractors to discuss the issues by Wednesday this week.

Both unions have been registering workers on the site for membership since the riot there on February 27, over working conditions. The riot resulted in several buildings on the site being set ablaze and about 11 vehicles, owned by Fiesta, damaged.

Following the incident, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller directed “full and complete” investigations and ordered that a report be presented to her as soon as possible. However, nothing has been heard of the investigations or the report since.

But days after the riot, representatives of both the BITU and the NWU, led by Morrison, went to the site to meet with the workers and discuss their problems.

Morrison said that on that visit the workers also complained about lack of life insurance/health coverage, transportation, lack of bathroom facilities and proper identification.

He said that the trade unions should be consulted when such huge construction investments are being planned to avoid these problems.

The unions have been very critical of the Government’s role in facilitating the Fiesta investors since then.

Morrison’s criticism was echoed in the Parliament last month by Senator Navel Clarke, deputy island supervisor of the NWU.

Clarke told the Senate that the trade union movement was concerned about the Fiesta Hotel issue to the extent that they now refer to it as “Fiasco”.

“There are standard procedures for the engagement of workers on construction sites and standard procedures laid down, between the parties, as to how the workers must operate. Therefore, what has now come to my mind is that someone, somewhere, ignored those procedures,” he told the Senate.

But permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Alvin McIntosh, said he was not aware of any deliberate attempt to keep the trade unions off the Spanish hotel sites.

“I don’t know of any deliberate attempt by the Spanish investors to keep out the unions, and I don’t think that dividing up the work between several smaller contracts was with the intention of making it difficult for unions to organise workers,” McIntosh said. “I think it was a move to expedite the completion of the project. It is a very big site and it is very hard to control.”

The unions have already sought formalisation of their request to represent the workers and are anxiously awaiting resolution of the matter under the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA).

Under the current JIC conditions for trade union representation on construction sites, no polls are held. To avoid the violent clashes which resulted from union rivalry, it was agreed in the 1960s that dues from the sites should be shared 60 per cent/40 per cent in favour of the union linked to the Government of the day. However, this has been changed in recent years, and the unions now share the dues 50/50 on every major construction site, including Highway 2000 and the Cement Company expansion.

Morrison, who helped to champion the 50/50 agreement, said that it has created a climate of co-operation on construction sites. “Either union’s representative can speak to the workers when problems arise,” he pointed out.

He said that although the Fiesta project is about 30 per cent to 40 per cent complete, unionisation could still help.

“It may help, because the unions are not just seeking to represent the interest of the workers, we also want to see a timely and smooth completion of the project,” he said.