TWO days before members of the security forces are expected to cast their votes for the November 28 local government election, the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) yesterday expressed concern that some private sector companies are refusing to give their staff, who are election day workers, permission to carry out their duties.

Director of Elections Orrette Fisher, in a release, appealed to employers to grant their staff time off without penalty.

“I wish to express appreciation to the private sector employers who have allowed their employees time off to be election day workers. On the other hand, there are some employees who are having great difficulty getting permission to work on election day. I am appealing to these employers to assist the process by allowing them the day off. We understand that election day is a regular business day and for many employers, especially in smaller businesses, this is a great sacrifice. However, the success and integrity of the electoral process depends heavily on the availability of honest, hard-working, capable, civic-minded individuals,” he stated.

Fisher told the Jamaica Observer, however, that he is not worried that the situation would negatively affect the voting process. “As we always do, we have trained more people than we need (so) it’s not a case where we don’t have enough workers,” he said, noting that it is not unusual for the EOJ to draw from its reserve workers, but that it is not normally done at this early state, and that the numbers appear to be larger.

“On the morning or day before when we have our meetings to distribute supplies, that’s when we would realise that some people don’t turn up, and that is when we would start going into the reserve (but) we prefer to make the appeal before it gets to that state. There is a larger number than usual of people indicating that they weren’t given permission,” he explained.

Fisher said that it is not yet known how many of the approximately 20,000 persons assigned to work will not be able to perform this civic duty for various reasons, not just lack of permission from their employees.Meanwhile, chief executive officer of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica Dennis Chung has said that if some employers are indeed blocking staff from carrying out election day duties he would back the EOJ in its appeal.

“I personally would support the call by the EOJ. I would encourage anyone (that) if your staff wants to go, then allow them to do it. What they (employers) need to do is verify with the EOJ,” he told the

Observer. Chung said that while he does not know of any instance where a person has not been allowed to work and has no reports from his membership pointing to this, the effect of having staff off the job should be borne in mind.

“One small company may not be able to allow multiple persons to do it which could be a reason for the disgruntlement. So if someone had a staff of five and two persons want to go it could be significant, or if someone has a deadline they need to meet to win a contract. So depends on why they would have refused also,” he stated.

Fisher noted that there is nothing in law that speaks to the issue, as the service is a strictly voluntary one. In the public sector, employees who serve as election day workers are regarded as being on duty while performing these functions and absence from their substantive jobs is not treated as leave, the EOJ explained, while at the same time reminding employers that their staff are entitled to three hours’ time off to vote on election day, in addition to their regular lunch hour.

This does not apply to persons who begin work at 10:00 am or later, and finish working at 2:00 pm or before.